gagnolare

Forms

gagnolare (first-person singular present gàgnolo, first-person singular past historic gagnolài, past participle gagnolàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ganniāre, a variant of Latin ganniō (“to yelp, whimper”), an imitative word.^[2][3][4] DELI rejects the older explanation from cagnolo “puppy”, which the notes to Lippi's Malmantile (1688) gave, and points to Catalan ganyolar and a parallel Gascon form.^[2] Nocentini adds Spanish gañir and Portuguese ganir.^[3][5]

The GDLI keeps both views: a change of conjugation of the Latin verb, or a popular cagnolare, a blend of the noun for puppy and lagnare with the initial voiced as in gabbia and gabinetto.^[6] Devoto preferred that blend.^[7] Zingarelli calls the word simply onomatopoeic.^[8]

De Vaan finds the closest comparisons for ganniō in Slavic, and thinks both imitative.^[9][1] The OLD calls it imitative.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the 14th-century Libro di motti, of a dog or fox whimpering.^[2] The GDLI quotes it: faceva segno di cane che mormorasse, e gagnolava (“he made a sign like a grumbling dog, and whimpered”), already of a person.^[6][11]

Semantic evolution

The notes to the Malmantile (1688) say the word is used for the whimper of foxes and puppies wanting the teat.^[2][6] Carena described the high, low, broken sound a dog makes from grief or longing, and the sound of newborn puppies and kittens.^[6] The Malmantile already uses it of a person who keeps lamenting, and Carducci wrote né gagnolo né abbaio (“I neither whimper nor bark”).^[11][12] DEI dates the verb to the 17th century and the derivatives gagnolamento and gagnolio to the 14th.^[13]

Timeline

• 14th century – The Libro di motti uses gagnolare.^[2]
• 1688 – The notes to the Malmantile explain the word.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of a dog or fox, to whimper or whine.^{[4][14][15][1]}
2. (by extension) Of a person, to snivel or complain tiresomely.^[4][14][15]

Word family

• gagnolamento
• gagnolio
• sguagnolare

Related words

• gannire
• Latin ganniō

Usage notes

The verb is uncommon.^[4][14][1] The stress falls on the first syllable in the present: gàgnolo.^[14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 535
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1746
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse