gannire

Forms

gannire (first-person singular present gannìsco, first-person singular past historic gannìi, past participle gannìto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin ganniō (“to yelp, whimper”).^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary instead treats it as inherited from the Latin verb.^[1] Prati thought the word was probably literary in origin.^[6]

The Latin verb has popular outcomes elsewhere in Romance, with much the same sense: Spanish gañir, Portuguese ganir, Catalan ganyir and Dalmatian ganer.^[2][7] Meyer-Lübke also lists Aromanian nginire (“to whimper”) and Old French rejaner (“to bray”).^[7]

The Latin word is imitative of the animal's cry.^{[3][8][9][10]} De Vaan finds the closest comparison in Slavic words for speaking through the nose or murmuring, such as Russian гугнивый (gugnivyj, “speaking through the nose”), and notes that a Proto-Italic form with ⟨-ngn-⟩ would not normally give Latin ⟨-nn-⟩, so that an imitative reshaping must be assumed.^[11][1] The OLD compares Ancient Greek γαγγαίνω (gangaínō).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the first record to before 1419.^[3][4] Among the early users Prati and the GDLI cite Dominici, who says that domestic animals call to one another in different ways and otherwise ganniscono, abbaiano o miagolano (“yelp, bark or mew”).^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

Alunno explained the verb as the plaintive, subdued cry of a dog that seems sick or nearly dead.^[5] Marchetti used it in his translation of Lucretius for the fawning voice of the Molossian hound with its pups: col gannir della voce in altra guisa / suole ad essi adular.^[12][5] Tommaseo describes it as less than barking, and adds the cry of the fox.^[12]

Modern dictionaries mark the verb as obsolete, uncommon or literary.^[3][8][13] They define it as a loud whimper of dogs and foxes, uttered in complaint or in contentment.^[14][15][16]

Timeline

• Before 1419 – First record of gannire.^[3][4]
• 15th century – Sabatini–Coletti dates the word to this century.^[15]
• 16th century – DEI dates the word from this century.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary, uncommon) Of a dog or fox, to yelp or whimper loudly, in complaint or in contentment: Il cane gannì davanti alla porta chiusa.^{[3][8][15][16]}

Related words

• Latin ganniō
• Spanish gañir

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated with the suffix -isc- (gannisco, gannisci) and takes the auxiliary avere.^[8][15][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1761
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 582
6. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 482
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 196
11. ^ 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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)