incantare

Forms

incantare (first-person singular present incànto, first-person singular past historic incantài, past participle incantàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin incantō (“to chant a spell over”), formed from in- and cantō (“to sing; to recite magic formulas”).^[2][3][4][1] DELI and Zingarelli take the prefix as intensive, Nocentini as locative, and GRADIT as “over”.^[2][3][5][4] cantō is the frequentative of canō (“to sing”),^[5][3][6] built on its past participle cantus.^[7]

The Latin verb lives on across Romance: French enchanter, Occitan encantar, Catalan encantar, Spanish encantar, Portuguese encantar and Romanian încânta.^[5][8] Nocentini adds Sardinian incantare, but Battisti and Alessio say the word is not Sardinian.^[5][9] canō goes back to Proto-Italic *kan-e- and Proto-Indo-European *kh₂n-e- (“to sing”).^[7]

DELI ascribes the 18th-century uses “they charmed me”, “I am enchanted” to the influence of French charmer, and the social use of incantato “delighted” to enchanté.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the poems of Ruggieri Apugliese of Siena, from the middle of the 13th century, in the sense “to put under a spell”.^[10][5] Zingarelli dates the word before 1257.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used incantare of subjecting someone or something to a spell, of summoning demons and bending them to one's will, of healing by magic, and of taming a snake with a hypnotic tune; figuratively it meant to rob a person of will and judgement by flattery or deceit.^[10] DELI finds it in the Fiore and in Boccaccio in 1362–1364.^[2]

The milder figurative senses came later: “to charm, captivate” in Serafino Aquilano before 1500, and “to hold spellbound with wonder or delight” in Sforza Pallavicino before 1667.^[2] The reflexive incantarsi “to stand lost in a daze” is in Giovan Battista Fagiuoli in 1734; of a mechanism it means “to jam, stop”, recorded by D'Annunzio in 1915 and before him in Milanese incantàss, in Cherubini's dictionary of 1856.^[2]

Folk medicine spoke of incantare i bachi, killing a child's intestinal worms with formulas and chants, and of incantare la fame, to stave off hunger.^[11]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – Ruggieri Apugliese uses incantare.^[10][5]
• 13th century – Encantamento is in Uguccione da Lodi.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses encanto “spell”.^[2]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses incantesimo.^[2]
• 1362–1364 – Boccaccio uses incantare of magic.^[2]
• Before 1500 – Serafino Aquilano uses it for “to charm”.^[2]
• 1734 – Giovan Battista Fagiuoli uses incantarsi “to stand dazed”.^[2]
• 1856 – Cherubini records Milanese incantàss of a machine that stops.^[2]
• 1857–1858 – Ippolito Nievo uses incantevole.^[2]
• 1915 – D'Annunzio uses incantarsi for “to stop”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bewitch, to put under a spell: Il mago incantò l'intero villaggio.^{[4][12][11][1]}
2. To charm snakes with music or slow movements: incantare i serpenti.^[4][12][10]
3. (figurative) To enchant, fascinate, delight; also used without an object: La sua voce incantava la sala.^{[4][12][6][11]}
4. (figurative) To beguile, take in with flattery or promises: Non riuscirai a incantarmi con due complimenti.^[4][12][3]
5. (reflexive, incantarsi) To stand lost in a daze or in wonder: Si incantò davanti alle luci del porto.^[3][11][6]
6. (reflexive, incantarsi) Of a mechanism: to jam, stop: La stampante si incanta ogni mattina.^[3][11][13]

Word family

• incantamento
• incantato
• incantatore
• incantesimo
• incantevole
• incanto
• disincantare
• disincanto
• incantagione
• incantatorio

Related words

• cantare

Usage notes

An obsolete incantare “to put up for auction” has a separate source: it is formed from incanto “auction”, which goes back to Medieval Latin in quantum? “for how much?”, the call of the auctioneer.^[2][4][11] Nocentini takes incanto “auction” through Occitan encant.^[5] The auction verb is first recorded in a Savona document of 1178–1182, and Medieval Latin incantare in this sense is found in a Venetian text of 1244 and at Antibes in 1227.^[10][5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1980
10. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli