dubitare

Forms

dubitare (first-person singular present dùbito, first-person singular past historic dubitài, past participle dubitàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also wrote dubbitare, and southern and northern texts have forms such as dovetare and dobitar.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin dubitō (“to be uncertain, hesitate”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin verb is derived from dubius (“hesitant, in doubt”), the source of Italian dubbio.^[3][4][6] De Vaan explains the family from an older adjective meaning “in doubt”, perhaps “of two forms”, built on the Latin stem for “two”, duo, and the root of “to be, become”; a verb dubāre is quoted by Festus.^[6][7][8]

The verb also lived on by popular descent: French douter, Old Occitan doptar, Spanish dudar and Portuguese duvidar continue it, often in the late sense “to fear”.^[4][9][10] Old Italian borrowed the Occitan form as dottare (“to fear”).^[9][10][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Guido Faba's Parlamenti ed epistole, written in Bologna about 1243.^[2] DELI's earliest dates are in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, for “to question accepted beliefs” and “not to trust”, and in Giordano da Pisa, 1303–1306, for the state of uncertainty itself.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already had the senses of the modern verb: not believing something fully, hesitating between two choices, and, as in late Latin, fearing that something bad might happen.^[2] Dante writes Or dubbi tu, e dubitando sili “Now you doubt, and in doubting you are silent” (Paradiso 32).^[11] The sense “to fear”, which the Medieval Latin of Italy had from the 10th century, is now mostly confined to phrases such as non dubitare “don't worry”.^[7][5][12]

In modern use the verb mostly expresses disbelief, often with che and the subjunctive, and the reply ne dubito “I doubt it”, or its opposite non ne dubito, is very common.^[5][13]

Timeline

• c. 1243 – Guido Faba uses the verb in Bologna.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni has dubitare “to question; to distrust”.^[3]
• 1303–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for being in a state of uncertainty.^[3]
• Before 1400 – Dubitativo appears in Franco Sacchetti.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To doubt, to be uncertain what to believe or do: Dubitava se partire subito o aspettare.^[5][13][14]
2. To call into question, not to believe in something: Molti dubitano della sua versione dei fatti.^[5][13][15]
3. To distrust, not to rely on someone or something: dubitare di sé, dubitare delle proprie forze.^[5][15][12]
4. To think unlikely: Dubito che il treno arrivi in orario. As a reply, ne dubito means “I doubt it”, and non ne dubito “I have no doubt of it”.^[5][13]
5. To fear, to suspect that something bad is so: Dubito di averla offesa.^{[5][14][12][1]}

Word family

• dubitativo
• dubitazione
• dubitoso
• dubitabile
• dubitante

Related words

• dubbio
• French douter

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1398
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli