distruggere

Forms

distruggere (first-person singular present distrùggo, first-person singular past historic distrùssi, past participle distrùtto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian destruggere, Old Italian destrugere, Old Italian distrurre and Old Italian destruçer in Venice.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *destrugere, inherited from Latin dēstruō (“to pull down, demolish”), a compound of dē- and struō (“to pile up, build”).^[5][1][6][7] The new infinitive was formed from the perfect dēstrūxī and the participle dēstructus.^[5] Devoto explains it by analogy: as “lessi”, “letto” go with “leggo”, “leggere”, so “distrussi”, “distrutto” gave “distruggo”, “distruggere”, while the regular descendant of the Latin verb kept only the past forms.^[8][6] The LEI too calls the Italian form a remaking on the participle, beside “distrurre” (after “condurre”) and the form without prefix, struggere.^[2]

The Latin verb continues in French détruire, Occitan destruire, Catalan destrohir, Spanish destruir, Portuguese destruir and Engadine Romansh desdrür.^[5][9][2] Latin struō is from Proto-Italic *strowe-, from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to strew, spread out”), the root of English strew and Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽 (straujan, “to strew”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Malispini (13th century), in the sense “to annihilate, bring to nothing”;^[6][3][2] Zingarelli dates the word to about 1250, and the Venetian destruçer is in the Panfilo of about 1250.^[6][3][2]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the verb from about 1313, and the participle distrutto had already meant “drained of all strength” in his work of 1293–1294.^[2][6] Old Italian also used it for melting wax or fat, a sense shared with struggere, and for slowly consuming someone with grief or love, as in Petrarch's cieco desir, che ’l cor distrugge, “blind desire, which consumes the heart”.^[2][3][11]

The derivatives distruzione, distruttivo and distruttore are semi-learned, from Latin dēstructiō, dēstructīvus and dēstructor.^[6][5] In modern Italian, besides demolishing and wiping out, the verb has many hyperbolic uses: a climb or a long argument that distrugge someone wears them out, and critics can distruggere a book.^[7][12][13] The LEI records a single borrowing from English in the family, destroyer, the warship.^[2]

Timeline

• About 1250 – Venetian destruçer appears in the Panfilo.^[2][3]
• Early 13th century – Destruzione is used by Ugieri Apugliese.^[6]
• 13th century – Ricordano Malispini uses distruggere.^[6]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses distrutto “exhausted”.^[6]
• About 1313 – Dante uses distruggere.^[2]
• 1438 – Leon Battista Alberti writes destruggere.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To destroy, ruin completely, reduce to pieces or nothing: L’incendio ha distrutto il bosco.^{[7][12][13][1]}
2. To wipe out an army, a population or animals: to annihilate.^[7][12][13]
3. (figurative) To bring to ruin, wreck a life or a family; to make efforts vain or take away hopes.^[7][12]
4. (figurative, often hyperbolic) To exhaust someone physically or morally: Quel viaggio mi ha distrutto.^[7][13]
5. (figurative) To demolish a reputation or a work by harsh criticism.^[7][13]
6. (archaic) To melt wax or fat.^[7][3][11]

Word family

• distruzione
• distruttivo
• distrutto
• distruttore
• distruttibile
• indistruttibile
• distruggitore

Related words

• struggere
• costruire
• struttura
• Latin dēstruō
• French détruire

Usage notes

Nulla si crea e nulla si distrugge (nothing is created and nothing destroyed) is a set phrase.^[12][3][11] The reflexive distruggersi means to ruin one's health, or in literary use to pine away.^[13][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1536
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 149
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse