giovare

Forms

giovare (first-person singular present gióvo or giòvo, first-person singular past historic giovài, past participle giovàto, auxiliary avére or (alternatively when the subject is a thing) èssere)^[1] Old northern forms have initial ⟨ç⟩ or ⟨z⟩, such as Old Italian çovare and Old Italian çoar.^[2] Old texts also have iuvare and iovare.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin iuvō (“to help; to please”).^[4][5][6][1] Outside Italy the verb survives only in Sardinian juare and in the Rhaeto-Romance of Gherdëina (zové).^[7][8]

DELI calls the Latin verb, which meant first “to give pleasure to someone” and then “to help”, of obscure origin, and Nocentini finds no sure comparison for it.^[4][5] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *ijow- and a reduplicated present Proto-Indo-European *h₁i-h₁euH- (“to help”), with cognates in Old Irish and in Sanskrit अवति (ávati, “helps, protects”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, from the last quarter of the 12th century, in the sense “to be of benefit, be useful”.^[2] DELI dates the same sense to Bono Giamboni, before 1292: in ogni battaglia non tanto la moltitudine quanto la virtù giova (“in every battle it is not numbers so much as valour that avails”).^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense “to please” lived on in poetry: Dante has it before 1321 (ma perché sappi che di te mi giova), and Leopardi still wrote E pur mi giova / la ricordanza.^[4][10][11] The old transitive use “to help” appears in Dante's image of the man who walks at night with the lamp behind him, che porta il lume dietro e sé non giova.^[11][12]

The impersonal giova “it is useful” is found in Giordano da Pisa before 1311.^[4] The pronominal giovarsi di “to make use of” was first recorded in the 1612 Crusca dictionary; in Tuscany se te ne giovi means “if you don't mind it”, of using something without disgust.^[4][13][11] Of the derivatives, giovamento is in Boccaccio about 1336 and giovevole in Castiglione and Firenzuola in the early 16th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur give the TLIO's first record.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses giovare “to be useful”.^[4]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses impersonal giova.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the verb for “to please”.^[4]
• About 1336 – Boccaccio uses giovamento.^[4]
• 1612 – The Crusca dictionary records giovarsi “to make use of”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To do good, be of benefit (to someone or something): Il riposo ti gioverà.^[6][10][14]
2. (impersonal) To be useful or advisable: Non giova arrabbiarsi.^[6][13][14]
3. (literary) To please, give delight.^[6][13][10]
4. (transitive, uncommon) To help, favour someone.^[6][14][1]
5. (pronominal, giovarsi) To make use of, avail oneself of: Mi sono giovato dei suoi consigli.^[13][15][14]
6. (pronominal, Tuscany) To use or do something without disgust.^[10][13]

Word family

• giovevole
• giovereccio

Related words

• giovamento
• Latin iuvō

Usage notes

The auxiliary is avere, or essere when the subject is a thing.^[13][14][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1814
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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse