latrare

Forms

latrare (first-person singular present làtro, first-person singular past historic latrài, past participle latràto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lātrāre (“to bark”), together with its noun lātrātus.^[2][3][1][4] Zingarelli calls it a learned word.^[5]

The same verb is Occitan lairar, Catalan lladrar, Spanish ladrar, Portuguese ladrar and Romanian lătra.^[3][6][1] French has no form of it.^[7] Old Paduan larar, Old Genoese lairar and Piedmontese larè (“to chatter”) are northern outcomes.^[8]

The Latin verb is of Indo-European origin: an imitative base for the dog's bark has sure matches in Sanskrit, Old Church Slavonic, Russian and Lithuanian lóti.^[3][9] DELI traces it to a root for crying out.^[2] Devoto saw a verb made from a noun of that root, which is also that of lamento.^[10] The OLD compares lāmentum too.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cremonese poet Ugo di Perso, of the 13th century, in the sense “to make the sound of a dog”, to bark loudly and insistently.^[2][11][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb of people, who were said to speak or shout in a voice like a dog's bark, and even of storms and other natural forces that broke out loudly and violently.^[11] Dante writes of Cerberus that con tre gole caninamente latra (“with three throats he barks like a dog”), and in the Inferno he also has a sinner barking with his eyes cast down.^[12][13]

The infinitive could be used as a noun, il latrare.^[11][12] The noun latrato, the long and fierce barking of a dog, appears in Boccaccio in 1348–1353.^[2] The figurative sense, to rail at people or to talk wildly, is still in use, with a pejorative tone.^[4][14][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – Ugo di Perso uses latrare.^[2][11]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses the noun latrato.^[2]
• 14th century – Latramento and latratore are recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of a dog, to bark loudly and fiercely: Il mastino latrava contro ogni passante.^[4][16][14]
2. (figurative, pejorative) Of a person, to bawl or rail in a loud, angry voice.^{[4][16][14][17]}
3. (figurative) To talk thoughtlessly, to blather.^[4]

Word family

• latrato
• latrante
• latratore
• latramento

Related words

• lamento
• Latin lātrō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2177
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana