indovino

Forms

indovino m (plural indovini, feminine indovina)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian indivino, Old Italian indevino, Old Italian endivino, Old Italian 'ndovino and the northern Old Italian indovin.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun of indovinare (“to divine, guess”).^{[4][5][6][2][3]} DEI and Treccani explain it instead as from Latin dīvīnus (“soothsayer, prophet”) remade on the Italian verb, and Devoto as a crossing of that Latin noun with the verb.^[7][8][9]

The verb goes back to Vulgar Latin *indīvīnō, formed from the prefix in- and dīvīnō (“to foretell”), a derivative of dīvīnus (“divine”).^[10][11] Nocentini explains the pretonic ⟨o⟩ of the Italian forms as a change of ⟨i⟩ before the following labial.^[11] The old form indivino, used by Francesco da Barberino in 1314, shows that writers were aware of the link with the Latin family.^[10] The verb has the cognates French deviner, Occitan devinar, Spanish adivinar and Portuguese adivinhar.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in a Bergamasque paraphrase of the Ten Commandments, perhaps of the mid-13th century, for someone who knows or reveals the future or hidden things by divination or prophetic spirit.^[2] DELI's first dated example is in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, and Zingarelli dates the word to 1287.^[10][12]

Semantic evolution

Bono Giamboni writes that what soothsayers, “compositori di bugie” (“makers of lies”), say by chance does not always come true for them.^[3] In Inferno 20 Dante describes the women who “lasciaron l'ago, / la spuola e 'l fuso, e fecersi 'ndivine” (“left the needle, the shuttle and the spindle, and became soothsayers”).^[3] Old Italian also used the word as an adjective for animals and for anyone gifted with prophetic powers, and as an abstract noun meaning “a prediction”.^[2]

Petrarch (1374) has the extended sense “someone who foresees correctly”.^[10] The adjective “presaging” is literary;^[4][5] Tasso writes of “la mente, indovina de' lor danni” (“the mind, foreseeing their misfortunes”).^[4][5] The gioco dell'indovino is a children's game in which a blindfolded player must recognise the companion who touched him.^[12][13] The noun also became an occupational surname, Indovino.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – A Bergamasque paraphrase of the Decalogue has the word, as the TLIO dates it.^[2]
• 1287 – Date of first record in Zingarelli.^[12]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses indovino.^[10]
• 1300–1313 – Dante writes fecersi 'ndivine in the Inferno.^[3]
• 1314 – Francesco da Barberino uses the form indivino.^[10]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses indivina for someone who foresees correctly.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. fortune-teller, soothsayer: someone who claims to foresee the future or to interpret hidden things through magic or a special link with the supernatural: La regina mandò a chiamare un indovino.^[4][5][12]
2. (by extension) Someone who guesses or foresees correctly what will happen.^[12][6]

Adjective

1. (literary) Foreseeing, presaging future events.^[4][5][8]
2. (literary, rare) divinatory.^[4][5][6]

Related words

• indovinare
• indovinello
• divino
• divinare
• Latin dīvīnus

Usage notes

The feminine is indovina.^[1][5] In familiar speech non sono mica indovino! (“I'm not a mind-reader!”) excuses someone for not having known something in advance.^[5][8][13] Indovino is also the first person singular present of indovinare, io indovino (“I guess”).^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 7, 846
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2008
8. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli