giurare

Forms

giurare (first-person singular present giùro, first-person singular past historic giurài, past participle giuràto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin iūrō (“to swear, take an oath”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from iūs (“law, right”), and meant first “to pronounce the ritual formula”.^[2][5][6] GDLI calls the Italian word semi-learned, and Battisti and Alessio note that all its derivatives are learned.^[7][8]

The verb is pan-Romance: French jurer, Occitan jurar, Catalan jurar, Spanish jurar, Portuguese jurar, Sardinian jurare and Romanian jura.^[3][9]

De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic noun meaning “oath, law” and a verb “to swear” derived from it, and traces the noun to a PIE word for “vital force, eternity”.^[10] Wiktionary gives the root Proto-Indo-European *h₂yew- (“justice, law”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records, in the Latin spelling iurare, are in the Breve di Montieri of 1219, both transitive, “to affirm or promise solemnly, calling on God as witness”, and intransitive, “to take an oath”.^[2][3][4] The form giurare is first found in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, for taking an oath.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the verb for conspiring and for promising a woman in marriage, a sense found in Boccaccio and paralleled in French jurer une femme and Provençal jurar molher.^[4][11][7] In the 18th century it took the sense “to curse, blaspheme” from French jurer (Scipione Maffei, 1747).^[2]

The participle giurato had long named someone sworn to an office; in 1797 the first constitution of the Cisalpine Republic used it for a member of a jury, on the French model of juré.^[2] Today the weakened ti giuro simply stresses that one is telling the truth, and ci giurerei means “I'm almost sure of it”.^[4][11][6]

Timeline

• 1219 – iurare in the Breve di Montieri.^[2][4]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni writes giurare.^[2]
• Before 1311 – the noun giuro “oath” appears in Giordano da Pisa.^[2]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses the verb transitively.^[2]
• Before 1342 – giuramento appears in Domenico Cavalca.^[2]
• Before 1348 – giurato “bound by oath” in Giovanni Villani.^[2]
• 1747 – Scipione Maffei uses giurare for “to blaspheme”.^[2]
• 1797 – giurato “juror” in the constitution of the Cisalpine Republic.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To swear: to affirm or promise solemnly with an oath: giurare fedeltà al re.^[4][11][12]
2. giurare il falso, to swear to something untrue;^[4] giurare e spergiurare, to swear over and over.^[4]
3. (transitive) To assure someone that something is certain: Ti giuro che arriverà in tempo.^[4][11][12]
4. (intransitive) To take an oath: giurare davanti al giudice.^[11][12][5]
5. (intransitive) To be completely sure of something: non ci giurerei.^[11][12][4]
6. (obsolete) To conspire (compare congiurare).^[4][11]
7. (obsolete) To pledge oneself to marry.^[4][11][12]

Word family

• giuramento
• giurato
• giuro
• giurabile
• giuratore
• giuratorio
• rigiurare

Related words

• giure
• giuria
• congiurare
• Latin iūs
• French jurer

Usage notes

Giurarla a qualcuno (colloquial) means to vow revenge on someone.^[11][12] The verb takes avere.^[1][11] The old spelling iurare is found in early texts.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1823
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli