donno

Forms

donno m (plural donni)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin domnus, the syncopated form of dominus (“master of a household, lord”).^[2][3][4][1] DEI cites the short form from the Lex agraria, and the OLD from inscriptions;^[5][6][1] Wiktionary calls it Late Latin.^[5][6][1] Devoto describes the Italian word as the regular outcome of the full form: the unstressed middle vowel was lost and /mn/ was assimilated to /nn/.^[7]

The DÉRom reconstructs the word for common Proto-Romance, with continuations in Sardinian, Romanian and the western Romance languages but none in Dalmatian, Friulian, Ladin or Romansh.^[8] Cognates are Romanian domn, Sicilian donnu, Old French dam, Old Occitan don, Spanish dueño and Portuguese dono.^[9][10][1] The Old French word was borrowed as Italian damo.^[9][5] The learned domino is a doublet.^[1]

The full form is built on domus (“house”) and meant “the one of the house”.^[6][11] De Vaan sets up Proto-Italic *dom-o/u-no- “of the house”;^[11][1] Pinault's reconstruction “who profits from the house” is possible, but cannot be proved.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a document from Osimo of 1151.^[12] DELI's first example, in the Elegia giudeo-italiana of the 12th or 13th century, has the sense “lord, master”: Vidisi donni là desfare, “there one saw lords destroyed”.^[2][13]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian donno was both a lord or owner and a title of honour placed before the names of clergy and eminent men.^[12] The Novellino tells of a knight who stayed with the donno d'Alborea in Sardinia, and Dante uses the word for the lord of Gallura and for Michel Zanche, a title that Tommaseo found apt for a Sardinian.^[13][14] Boccaccio writes of a priest called donno Gianni di Barolo.^[3][4]

The title lives on in the short form don, used for priests and, in the South, as a title for nobles and people of standing that spread under Spanish rule in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[10] Donno itself became literary and archaic, though Varchi and Fanfani still recorded it as alive.^[5][14] Fanfani noted the Tuscan saying dartisi il donno, used of someone unwilling to work, as if struck by the idleness of the lords.^[14]

Timeline

• 1151 – A document from Osimo is the first record.^[12]
• 12th–13th century – The Elegia giudeo-italiana uses donni for lords.^[2]
• 16th–17th century – The short form don spreads in the South as a noble title under Spanish rule.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic, literary) lord, master: Il vecchio donno del castello accolse i pellegrini.^[3][15][16]
2. (archaic) A title of honour placed before the names of clergy or eminent persons, the same as don.^[3][16][4]

Word family

• don
• donnino

Related words

• donna
• domino
• damo
• Latin dominus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1381
6. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse