Etymologically
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ingannare

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Pronunciation

  • /in.ɡanˈna.re/[1]

Forms

ingannare (first-person singular present ingànno, first-person singular past historic ingannài, past participle ingannàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old forms include enganare and engannare in the north and incannare.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin ingannāre, recorded in the Reichenau Glossary of the 8th century, where it glosses insultaret “he would mock”.[2][1] Nocentini reconstructs Vulgar Latin *ingannāre (“to mimic, mock”), from Latin ganniō (“to whimper, yelp”) with the prefix in-;[5][2] DELI notes the change of conjugation.[5][2] Late glosses also have gannātor (“mocker”), translating Ancient Greek χλευαστής (khleuastḗs), and ingannātūra (“mockery”).[2][6]

The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance verb meaning “to imitate the voice of an animal”, from which the senses “to mock”, “to lure an animal” and “to deceive” developed; it is missing from Sardinian, so it belongs to a later layer of Proto-Romance.[7] The same word is Old French enjaner, Occitan enganar, Catalan enganyar, Spanish engañar, Portuguese enganar and Romanian îngâna (“to mimic”).[5][8] Other proposals, a Germanic root or a derivation from Latin canna, are discussed by DELI but not accepted.[2]

De Vaan regards the Latin verb as imitative, with its closest comparanda in Slavic.[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Rinaldo d'Aquino, of the late 12th century, with the sense “to disappoint”.[2][11] The reflexive ingannarsi “to be mistaken” is recorded in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, and enganare “to betray” in the Proverbia super natura feminarum.[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to defraud” is recorded in the Novellino of the late 13th century, and Dante uses the verb widely, with many shades of meaning.[2] Petrarch speaks of a traitor in false guise who would have deceived someone wiser than himself.[3] Poliziano, before 1480, uses it for distracting oneself from an unpleasant feeling, the sense of ingannare il tempo “to while away the time”.[2][12]

The noun inganno is recorded in the 13th century.[2] In music the cadenza d'inganno, the deceptive cadence, passed into German as a technical term.[6] Today the verb is also used in sport for wrong-footing an opponent.[13][14]

Timeline

  • 8th century – The Reichenau Glossary has Late Latin inganaret.[2]
  • Late 12th century – Rinaldo d'Aquino uses the verb.[2]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses ingannarsi.[2]
  • 13th century – Inganno “deceit” is recorded.[2]
  • Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for “to defraud”.[2]
  • 1303–1306 – Ingannevole “deceptive” is recorded.[2]
  • 1313–1319 – Dante uses the verb widely.[2]
  • Before 1480 – Poliziano uses it for relieving an unpleasant feeling.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To deceive, make someone believe something false, often abusing their trust: Ci ha ingannati con false promesse.[11][13][14]
  2. To mislead one's judgement; also intransitive: l'apparenza inganna (proverb), se la memoria non m'inganna.[11][13][4]
  3. To be unfaithful to, betray: Per anni ha ingannato la moglie.[11][13][14]
  4. To disappoint hopes or trust.[11][14][4]
  5. To elude or cheat: Il ladro riuscì a ingannare le guardie.[11][14][4]
  6. To make something unpleasant easier to bear: ingannare il tempo, ingannare l'attesa.[11][13][4]
  7. (sports) To wrong-foot an opponent: Il centravanti ha spiazzato e ingannato tutta la difesa.[11][13]
  8. (pronominal, ingannarsi) To be mistaken: Ti inganni se pensi che rinunci.[13][14][4]

Word family

  • inganno
  • ingannatore
  • ingannevole
  • ingannabile
  • disingannare
  • disinganno
  • sgannare
  • gagnolare
  • Latin gannio

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2026
  7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 558
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  14. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse