gridare

Forms

gridare (first-person singular present grìdo, first-person singular past historic gridài, past participle gridàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The old northern form is Old Italian cridare.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *crītāre (“to cry out for help”), a shortened form of Latin quirītō (“to call on the citizens for help, cry out in protest”).^{[4][5][6][1][7]} The Latin verb is formed from Quirītēs (“Roman citizens”), so that it first meant to call the citizens to one's aid.^[5][6][8] Alessio, like DEI and Zingarelli, preferred the Late Latin quirrītō (“to squeal”), said of the boar, a word of imitative origin, because the classical verb was so little used.^{[4][9][10][8]} The initial g shows the voicing of /k/ before /r/ that is not rare in Tuscan; the pretonic vowel was lost as in crollare.^[11][12][1]

The same verb is French crier, Occitan cridar, Catalan cridar, Spanish gritar and Portuguese gritar, with Venetian criar and Romansh crider.^[5][13] DEI sees it as a word of northern Italy and of the western Romance area.^[9]

Because the Romance verb is so close to Proto-West Germanic *krītan, some scholars have proposed a borrowing in one direction or the other: Meyer-Lübke mentions a Germanic source with Middle High German krīzen.^[13][1] Zaccaria thought of a Gothic verb meaning “to weep”.^[14] Coromines and von Wartburg rejected a Germanic source because the Germanic forms are late and few, and took both families as imitative.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date the first record to the second half of the 12th century.^[6][5] DELI's first dated use, before 1292 in Giamboni, is “to make a din with one's voice in anger or to call for attention”.^[4] Giamboni writes that follia di matto e di stolto è gridare essendo dal nemico di lungi, “it is the folly of a madman and a fool to shout while far from the enemy”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the verb also took an object, “to say with loud cries”, and before 1306 Iacopone used it for “to invoke”.^[4] Dante has fame gridare a family's lords, that is, make them renowned.^[10] Later senses are “to announce aloud” (15th century), “to speak too loudly” (Alberti, 1437–1438) and “to scold” (Varchi, before 1565).^[4]

From the verb came grido, a cry, in Dante (1313–1319), already meaning “fame” in the Novellino;^[4] di grido, “famous”, is recorded before 1641.^[4] grida, a decree announced by the town crier, appears in Boccaccio and Villani, and gridio, a long noise of many voices, before 1587.^[4] L'ultimo grido of fashion (1905) renders French dernier cri, and DEI compares gridare vendetta and gridare al ladro with French crier vengeance and crier au voleur.^[4][9] A Tuscan proverb says il lupo avanti al gridare fugge, “the wolf flees before the shouting”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1150–1200 – First record.^[6][5]
• 13th century – Used with an object, “to say with loud cries”.^[4]
• Before 1292 – Giamboni uses it for shouting.^[4]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for “to invoke”.^[4]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses the noun grido.^[4]
• 1437–1438 – Alberti uses it for speaking too loudly.^[4]
• Before 1565 – Varchi uses it for “to scold”.^[4]
• 1905 – L'ultimo grido (of fashion) is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To shout: to raise one's voice to be heard or to vent one's feelings: I tifosi gridavano tutti insieme dagli spalti.^[6][16][10]
2. (intransitive) To speak too loudly: Abbassa la voce, non serve gridare.^[6][16][17]
3. (intransitive) To scream, as in pain; of animals, to give their call.^[6][10][18]
4. (intransitive) To protest;^[10][16][11] gridare contro qualcuno, to rail at someone;^[10][16][11] gridare allo scandalo, to cry scandal.^[10][16][11]
5. (transitive) To say something in a loud voice, to call out: gridare il nome di qualcuno.^[6][16][19]
6. (transitive) To cry out for, call for: gridare aiuto, gridare pietà;^[6][17][18] gridare vendetta, of an injustice, to cry out for punishment.^[6][17][18]
7. (transitive) To proclaim or assert forcefully: gridare la propria innocenza.^[6][16]
8. (transitive) To make widely known;^[6][10][18] (archaic) to proclaim a ban or a tournament.^[6][10][18]
9. (transitive, colloquial) To scold.^[6][11][17]

Word family

• grido
• sgridare
• grida
• gridacchiare
• gridio
• sgridata
• gridamento
• gridata
• gridatore
• gridazzare
• gridone
• rigridare
• sopraggridare

Related words

• Latin quirītō
• French crier

Usage notes

Common phrases are gridare al lupo, “to cry wolf”, gridare al miracolo, to marvel at something as a miracle, gridare vittoria, to claim victory, and gridare ai quattro venti, to tell everyone.^[6][10][17] The plural of grida, the decree, is gride, not grida.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 529
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1870
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 7, 40
16. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ a b c d e Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)