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inferno

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word inferno

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
early 13th century, Uguccione da Lodi
Borrowed from
Latin infernum
Ultimate origin
Latin inferus

Pronunciation

  • /inˈfɛr.no/[1]

Forms

inferno m (plural inferni)[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin infernum (“hell”), the noun use of Latin infernus (“lower, underground”).[2][3][1] The Latin adjective is formed from inferus (“lying below”) on the model of supernus (“upper”).[1][2][4] In Church Latin it took on its Christian sense: the Vulgate used it to render the Greek and Hebrew names of the realm of the dead, and DELI notes that the adjective infernālis is also a word of the Church.[4][2][3]

The word is found in nearly all the Romance languages: French enfer, Occitan enfern, Catalan infern, Spanish infierno and Portuguese inferno, but not Romanian.[5][4][6] Nocentini and the REW treat the Italian word as part of this common inheritance, DELI as a learned word.[5][6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from Uguccione da Lodi at the beginning of the 13th century, in the Christian sense: the place of eternal pain to which the souls of unrepentant sinners are condemned.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also had enferno and the popular ninferno.[3][7] The word also named the underworld of the ancient religions: Giovanni Villani tells how Aeneas was led by the Sibyl to see l'inferno e le pene che vi sono, hell and its torments.[3] Dante's Commedia made Inferno the name of its first part.[8][9] The figurative sense, anything that makes life unbearable, is recorded before 1420 in Saviozzo, and later uses include chaos, carnage and violent storms.[2][8] The adjective infernale is in Dante (1300–1313) and took the colloquial sense “tremendous” by 1887.[2]

English borrowed the word in 1834 for “hell”, and used it for a raging fire by 1928.[10][11] German Inferno means the scene of a catastrophe.[11]

Timeline

  • Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses inferno.[2]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses infernale.[2]
  • Before 1420 – Saviozzo uses inferno figuratively.[2]
  • 1834 – English inferno is first recorded.[10][11]
  • 1887 – Infernale “tremendous” is recorded.[2]
  • 1890 – The Valtellina wine called Inferno is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Christianity) hell, the place of eternal punishment of the damned; also its depiction in art and literature, and, with a capital, the first part of Dante's Commedia.[8][12][13]
  2. The underworld of the ancient religions.[8][12][14]
  3. (figurative) A place or situation of great suffering: Quel lavoro era diventato un inferno.[8][12][14]
  4. (figurative) Chaos, uproar; a scene of destruction: Nell'ora di punta la stazione è un inferno.[8][13]
  5. A violent storm.[8]
  6. In traditional olive-oil making, the underground room where the waste water is collected.[8][12][13]

Word family

  • infernale
  • inferi
  • infero
  • Latin infernus
  • English inferno

Usage notes

D'inferno means “terrible” (un caldo d'inferno), and lingua d'inferno and tizzone d'inferno are a slanderous and a wicked person.[12][14] The proverb le vie dell'inferno sono lastricate di buone intenzioni corresponds to the English one about the road to hell.[14][9] The same word is a literary adjective, “lying below, infernal”, as in Dante's valle inferna.[2][13][9] Inferno is also the name of a red Nebbiolo wine from the village of Inferno in Valtellina, recorded from 1890 and used by Carducci.[8][3]

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 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  4. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2015
  5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Inferno.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/inferno. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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