gorgogliare

Forms

gorgogliare (first-person singular present gorgóglio or gorgòglio, first-person singular past historic gorgogliài, past participle gorgogliàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old texts also have gorgollare and gurguiare.^[2] An old variant gargagliare is recorded as well.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *gurguliāre, a verb formed from gurguliō (“gullet, windpipe”).^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} Nocentini derives the Latin noun in turn from gurges (“whirlpool, eddy”), the source of gorgo.^[5] Devoto–Oli calls the verb simply imitative, and Treccani and Gabrielli describe the Latin noun as imitative of the sound.^[10][11][12]

Meyer-Lübke lists the verb among the derivatives of the Latin noun, which itself survives in Old Occitan gorgolh.^[13] Körting also sets up a Latin verb *gurguliāre (“to gurgle”) behind it.^[14] Battisti and Alessio compare gorgoglione.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Sienese Fatti di Cesare of the late 13th century, where the word describes water making a sound like boiling.^[2] DELI dates the sense “to make the noise of a liquid coming out of a narrow opening” to Dante (1300–1313).^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the Inferno Dante has sinners who “gurgle this hymn in their throats” (quest'inno si gorgoglian nella strozza), that is, speak indistinctly.^[16][6] Old texts also use it for talking in the throat without clear words, and the vernacular translation of Crescenzi uses it transitively for “to gargle”.^[3][16] Battisti and Alessio record the figurative sense “to grumble”, also of the bowels, from the 14th century.^[15]

Boccaccio already speaks of the gurgling of a spring turning into a voice.^[17] The sense of a gas passing through a liquid is dated to Tommaseo's dictionary of 1869.^[4] The noun gorgoglio names the sound: DELI dates gorgóglio to 1547, in Tolomei, and gorgoglìo “continued gurgling” to 1717, in Salvini.^[4]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – the Sienese Fatti di Cesare has the first record.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the verb in the Inferno.^[4]
• 14th century – derivatives ending in -amento and -ante appear.^[15]
• 1547 – the noun gorgóglio is recorded in Tolomei.^[4]
• 1717 – gorgoglìo is recorded in Salvini.^[4]
• 1869 – the sense “to pass as a gas through a liquid” appears in Tommaseo.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gurgle or burble: of water or another liquid, to make a low, broken noise flowing over stones, out of a narrow opening or while boiling.^[6][10][1]
2. Of the bowels, to rumble.^[6][10][7]
3. (chemistry) Of a gas, to rise through a liquid as small bubbles, or (transitive) to bubble a gas through a liquid to clean or cool it.^[6][10][1]
4. To make sounds with a liquid in the throat, as when gargling.^[6][8][1]
5. (figurative) To utter words indistinctly, as if through the throat.^[6][12]
6. (uncommon) To seethe with indignation.^[7]

Word family

• gorgoglio
• gorgoglione
• gorgogliamento
• gorgogliatore

Related words

• gorgo
• gola
• Latin gurguliō

Usage notes

In Old Tuscan a separate verb gorgogliare, from gorgoglione “weevil”, meant of pulses “to be bored by weevils”.^[16]

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 Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 518
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 207
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. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
15. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1847
16. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 986