guerreggiare

Forms

guerreggiare (first-person singular present guerréggio, first-person singular past historic guerreggiài, past participle guerreggiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian guereggiare, Old Italian ghuerreggiare, Old Italian guerigiare and the northern Old Italian guerezar.^[2] DEI also lists Old Italian guerziare.^[3]

Etymology

Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and the GDLI take it as borrowed from French guerroyer, recorded in French from the 12th century and formed on guerre (“war”).^[4][5][6][3] GRADIT, Sabatini–Coletti and Treccani see it as formed from Italian guerra + -eggiare.^[7][8][9] DEI compares Medieval Latin guerriare, recorded at Imola in 1197, and Sicilian guerriari.^[3] Wiktionary traces the verb to Vulgar Latin *werrizāre, formed on werra (“war”) with the verb suffix -izāre.^[1]

The noun guerra goes back to Proto-West Germanic *werra (“brawl, strife”), which is related to Old High German firwerran (“to entangle, throw into disorder”).^[10][4] It replaced Latin bellum all over the Romance-speaking world.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni's Florentine translation of Orosius, before 1292, with the sense “to wage war”.^[2][10] The translation of Brunetto Latini's Tesoro says that Quelli di Italia, che spesso guerreggiano tra loro, si dilettano di fare torre o altra magione di pietre molto forte (“Those of Italy, who often make war among themselves, delight in building towers or other very strong houses of stone”).^[6][11]

Semantic evolution

The transitive use “to fight (someone)” appears in the 13th century in Ricordano Malispini, but DELI calls it rare.^[10] In Old Italian the verb also meant to besiege a place, to train in the art of war, to rival or oppose someone, and, in religious texts, to lead into temptation.^[2] Boccaccio wrote Guerreggiar con donne e aver vittoria / del vincitore è più biasmo che gloria (“To make war on women and win brings the winner more blame than glory”).^[6]

Tommaseo records the proverb Chi ben guerreggia, ben patteggia (“who fights well, bargains well”) and guerreggiare a fermo, to fight standing one's ground.^[11] The participles have their own uses: guerreggiante “belligerent”, and guerra guerreggiata, a war fought in the open.^[9] Old derivatives include guerreggevole, guerreggiamento and guerreggiatore, all from the 14th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 1197 – Medieval Latin guerriare is recorded at Imola.^[3]
• 1287 – The year Zingarelli gives for the first record.^[12]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses guerreggiare in his translation of Orosius.^[10][2]
• 13th century – Ricordano Malispini uses the verb transitively.^[10]
• 14th century – Guerreggevole, guerreggiamento and guerreggiatore appear.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To wage war, to fight (with con or contro): Le due città guerreggiarono per decenni.^{[7][5][12][1]}
2. (intransitive, literary, figurative) To vie, to compete.^{[7][5][12][1]}
3. (transitive, literary) To combat, to fight an enemy.^[7][12][9]
4. (transitive, figurative) To oppose, to hinder, to treat with hostility.^[7][5][12]
5. (reciprocal, guerreggiarsi) To fight each other: I due clan si guerreggiano da generazioni.^[5][12][9]

Word family

• guerreggevole
• guerreggiante
• guerreggiatore
• riguerreggiare

Related words

• guerra
• French guerroyer

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1890
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e 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 c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli