legnare

Forms

legnare (first-person singular present légno, first-person singular past historic legnài, past participle legnàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also has lennare and lenare.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

In the modern sense “to beat with a stick” it is from Italian legno (“wood; stick”) + -are.^{[2][5][4][6][1]}

The older intransitive sense “to gather firewood” is a denominal of legna for Sabatini–Coletti.^[7] GRADIT, Devoto–Oli, Zingarelli, Gabrielli, Treccani and DEI take it instead from Latin lignārī (“to gather wood”), and GDLI calls it a learned word;^{[4][6][8][9][10][11][3]} GRADIT notes Medieval Latin lignare in 1150.^{[4][6][8][9][10][11][3]} The same verb is Occitan lenhar, and DEI adds Catalan.^[11][3]

Latin lignum (“wood”) is Proto-Italic *legno-.^[12] De Vaan finds two derivations equally possible: from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect”), as wood gathered for the fire, or from *legʰ- (“to lie”), as fallen wood.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Iacopone, before 1306, as lennare “to gather firewood”: he speaks of lands, vineyards, gardens and woods per lennare.^[2][4][3] DEI records Old Tuscan legnare in 1311.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to gather wood” lasted from the 13th to the 17th century.^[11] Varchi writes andavano a legnare (“they went to gather wood”), and Florentine decrees speak of the mountain communes of Pistoia needing to cut wood for their houses.^[13][3] It is now archaic.^[6][4]

The transitive verb “to beat with a stick” is first recorded in 1863, in Fanfani's Tuscan vocabulary, and was used by Guerrazzi, Carducci and Gadda.^[2][3] Legnata, a blow with a stick, is older: DEI dates it to the 16th century, in Caro.^[11] In colloquial use legnare now also means to defeat heavily, in sport and elsewhere.^[4][6][1]

Timeline

• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses lennare “to gather firewood”.^[2][4]
• 1311 – Old Tuscan legnare is recorded.^[11]
• 16th century – Legnata is recorded in Caro.^[11]
• 1863 – Legnare “to beat with a stick” appears in Fanfani's Tuscan vocabulary.^[2][5][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, colloquial) To beat with a stick, to bastonare; by extension, to beat up: Il padrone legnò il garzone.^[4][6][8]
2. (transitive, figurative, colloquial) To defeat heavily, to thrash: Domenica la squadra di casa è stata legnata.^[4][6][1]
3. (intransitive, archaic) To gather or cut firewood in the woods.^[4][6][10]

Word family

• legnata
• legnatura

Related words

• legno
• legna
• Latin lignum

Usage notes

Di santa ragione is the usual phrase with the verb: to give someone a sound beating.^[4][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 e f g 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 d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2196
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET