donare

Forms

donare (first-person singular present dóno, first-person singular past historic donài, past participle donàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dōnō (“to give as a present”), a verb formed in Latin from dōnum (“gift”).^[2][3][1][4] Nocentini, Wiktionary and Meyer-Lübke treat it as a Latin verb continued in Italian, while DELI classes it as a learned word, together with its derivatives donatore and donazione, which go back to dōnātor and dōnātiō.^[2][1][5][6]

The same verb is French donner, Occitan donar, Catalan donar, Spanish donar and Portuguese doar, and it passed into Basque doatu; it is missing in Romanian.^[2][5][7] In French it took over the general sense “to give” from Latin dō, so that French lacks a proper verb for “to make a present”.^[8] In the dialects of southern Italy the verb has likewise replaced some forms of dare.^[7]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *dōno- (“gift”) for the noun, from Proto-Indo-European *doh₃-no- or *deh₃-no-; the verb may already have been formed in Proto-Italic, as Oscan and Venetic verb forms suggest, though these may also be separate formations.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record DELI gives is in the Breve di Montieri, a Tuscan statute of 1219, with the sense “to give something by a free act of will, without expecting a reward”; the intransitive use “to make a donation” follows in the poet Percivalle Doria, who died in 1264.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian and in literary use donare could also mean simply “to give”, after the model of French donner: Leopardi writes al gener nostro il fato / non donò che il morire (“to our kind fate gave nothing but dying”).^[10][3][11] The infinitive was also used as a noun, il donare “gift, liberality”, as in the Novellino (late 13th century), which promises to recall belli donari (“fine gifts”).^[12][13]

The sense “to suit, to flatter” (questo colore ti dona) is recorded before 1866 in Massimo D'Azeglio.^[6] Donatore di sangue (1942) is a calque of the English blood-donor, and donare il sangue and donare un organo are now the usual phrases for giving blood or an organ for transfusion or transplant.^[6][3][14] The Treccani notes that donare is less common and less popular than regalare, and is preferred in literary use, for gifts of great value or in figurative senses.^[15]

D'Annunzio's motto Io ho quel che ho donato (“I have what I have given”, 1916–1917) goes back indirectly to a line of Seneca, through a 16th-century book of devices reworked by Giovanni Feno in 1623, not to a 15th-century hearthstone inscription as the poet claimed.^[6]

Timeline

• 1219 – The Breve di Montieri has the first record of the verb.^[6]
• Before 1264 – Percivalle Doria uses it intransitively, “to make a donation”.^[6]
• Early 13th century – Donazione appears in a vernacular version of Rainerio da Perugia.^[6]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses the noun donare “gift”.^[12]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses donatore.^[6]
• Before 1866 – Massimo D'Azeglio uses donare for “to suit, flatter”.^[6]
• 1916–1917 – D'Annunzio adopts the motto Io ho quel che ho donato.^[6]
• 1942 – Donatore di sangue is recorded, a calque of English blood-donor.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give something freely and without payment; to make a gift of: Ha donato la sua raccolta di stampe al comune.^[3][10][14]
2. (figurative) To devote, offer (affection, oneself, one's life): Ha donato gli anni migliori alla ricerca.^[3][10][4]
3. (medicine) To donate blood or an organ for transfusion or transplant: donare il sangue.^[3][10][14]
4. To give, impart a quality to something: Un pizzico di zenzero dona vivacità alla salsa.^[3][10][16]
5. (literary, archaic) To give, in general.^[3][10][1]
6. (chemistry) To give up (electrons) to another atom or ion.^[10]
7. (intransitive, law) To make a donation.^[3][14][16]
8. (intransitive) To suit, to flatter (with a): Il rosso le dona moltissimo.^[3][14][4]
9. (intransitive, uncommon) To make allowances for (age, inexperience).^[3][16]
10. (reflexive, donarsi) To devote oneself wholly to someone or something.^[4][14][16]

Word family

• donatore
• donazione
• donativo
• donatario
• donante
• ridonare
• condonare
• condono

Related words

• dono
• dare
• Latin dōnum
• French donner

Usage notes

The proverb a caval donato non si guarda in bocca (“don't look a gift horse in the mouth”) says a gift should be welcomed without judging its worth, and chi dona tosto dona due volte that a prompt gift counts twice.^[10][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1380
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 389
12. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana