immagine

Forms

immagine f (plural immagini, diminutive immaginina or immaginétta, pejorative immaginùccia)^[1] The literary form is imagine; older literary forms include imago, immago and image.^[2][3][4] Maggine is an old Florentine and Lucchese form.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin imāgō (“likeness, portrait; appearance, phantom”), taken from the accusative ⟨imaginem⟩.^[5][7][8][6] The Latin word spread widely in the language of the Bible and of the Church.^[5] The double ⟨mm⟩ is explained by Nocentini as an alignment with words beginning with the prefix in-, and by Sabatini–Coletti and DELI, after Migliorini, as a doubling after the first vowel of words stressed on the third-last syllable.^[7][9][5] Forms with ⟨imag-⟩ and ⟨immag-⟩ alternated into the 18th century.^[5]

A popular development of the Latin word survived in the old form Old Italian maina and in Friulian maine (“wayside chapel”).^[6][10] The learned word has parallels in French image, whence image, Spanish imagen, Portuguese imagem and Catalan imatge.^[7][10]

DELI calls the origin of the Latin word uncertain.^[5] It is usually connected with imitor (“to copy, imitate”): Nocentini and de Vaan derive both from an unrecorded verb, which may in turn be related to aemulus (“rivalling”).^[7][11][3] De Vaan sets up a Proto-Italic *imā- and a poorly attested root Proto-Indo-European *h₂eym- (“to copy”), comparing Hittite ḫimma- (“imitation, substitute”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is maggine in a Florentine text of 1291, for a likeness of a person or thing;^[5][8] Brunetto Latini has imagine before 1294.^[5][8] Dante uses imagine for the outward form of a body seen by the eye in the Convivio (1304–1308), where images are reflected sì come ne lo specchio (“as in a mirror”).^[5][12]

Semantic evolution

Dante also has the short form image in the Purgatorio: guizza dentro allo specchio vostra image (“your image quivers in the mirror”).^[12][5] The sense of a mental picture is in Dante before 1294, the symbolic sense in 1300–1313, and the sense of a painted or carved figure in 1313–1319; the spelling immagine appears before 1333 in Arrigo Simintendi and became usual later.^[5]

The derivatives came early: imaginazione in Dante before 1294, imaginare before 1303 and immaginario in 1354.^[5] Immaginifico was coined in 1728 by Anton Maria Salvini to render a Greek word of Plato, and was later applied to Gabriele D'Annunzio.^[5][7] In the 20th century the word took on the sense of the public image of a person or company, a calque of English image recorded in 1966 and 1971.^[5][9][2] Zoology uses it, or imagine, for the adult stage of an insect, and optics for the figure formed by a lens or mirror.^[5][13]

Timeline

• 1291 – Maggine is recorded in a Florentine text.^[5][8]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses imagine.^[5]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses imagine in the Convivio.^[5]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses image in the Purgatorio.^[5]
• Before 1333 – The spelling immagine appears.^[5]
• 1728 – Anton Maria Salvini coins immaginifico.^[5]
• 1956 – The zoological and optical senses are recorded.^[5]
• 1966 – The sense “public image”, from English, is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The outward form of a body as the senses, especially sight, perceive it; a reflection: Si guardava l'immagine nella vetrina.^[8][2][13]
2. (optics) The figure of an object formed by a lens, mirror or other optical system.^[13][14]
3. A mental picture produced by memory or imagination; a vision: Ho ancora davanti l'immagine di quella spiaggia.^[8][9][15]
4. The image a person, firm or institution presents to the public: Il partito vuole rinnovare la sua immagine.^[8][2][14]
5. A concrete expression or symbol of something abstract: Mia nonna era l'immagine della serenità.^[8][13]
6. A picture, a drawing, photograph or sculpture; a frame of a film: un libro pieno di immagini.^[8][2][15]
7. A sacred image, an effigy of a saint or of the Madonna.^[8][9]
8. (literature) A figurative expression, a metaphor: parlare per immagini.^[8][13]
9. (zoology) The imago, the adult stage of an insect.^[5][1]

Word family

• immaginabile
• immaginare
• immaginario
• immaginativa
• immaginativo
• immaginazione
• immaginifico
• immaginoso
• immaginetta

Related words

• immago
• imitare
• Latin imago
• French image

Usage notes

A immagine e somiglianza di, “in the image and likeness of”, comes from the account of the creation of man in Genesis.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
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. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1947
7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 7, 343
13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli