maledire

Forms

maledire (first-person singular present maledìco, first-person singular past historic maledìssi or (popular) maledìi, past participle maledétto, first-person singular imperfect maledicévo or (popular) maledìvo, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian maladire, also popular Tuscan; old maledicere and maladìcere.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin maledīcō (“to speak ill; to curse”), a compound of male (“badly”) and dīcō (“to say”).^[6][7][8][3] Its infinitive follows that of dire.^[9] GDLI calls it a learned word.^[5] DEI says the Latin verb first meant to utter words of ill omen, the opposite of benedīcō, then to speak ill of someone; its Christian sense, to curse, from the 4th century in Jerome, is a calque of Ancient Greek κακολογέω (kakologéō).^[4][6]

The same word is French maudire, Occitan maudir, Catalan maldir (“to slander”), Spanish maldecir and Portuguese maldizer, but it is missing in Romanian.^[6][3][4] The second part goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the first record before 1292.^[10] DELI, GRADIT and Nocentini cite Jacopone da Todi, before 1306, for “strike with condemnation or anathema”: Da Deo sì la maledice.^{[11][7][6][5]}

Semantic evolution

Old Italian texts already use the verb in all its main senses: in the Gospel harmony the Pharisees curse the man born blind (Eglino il maladissero), and Dante's Convivio has Maladetti siate voi.^[5] Petrarch curses the day of his first meeting with Laura: E maledico il dì ch'i' vidi 'l sole.^[12][13] The weaker sense “to consider worthy of execration” is dated before 1584, in Grazzini.^[11]

The etymological sense “to speak ill of” survives only as archaic.^[7][8][13] Carducci revived an intransitive construction with the dative on the Latin model: Io maledissi al papa.^[13]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[10]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses maledire for “to curse”.^[11][5]
• Early 14th century – The noun maledizione is recorded.^[6]
• Before 1584 – Grazzini uses it for “to execrate”.^[11]
• 1874 – Stramaledire is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To curse: to call down divine punishment or condemnation on someone; of God, to punish: che il cielo ti maledica!^[7][8][13]
2. To execrate or rail against someone or something felt to be the cause of misfortune: Maledisse il momento in cui aveva accettato.^[7][2][10]
3. (archaic) To speak ill of, slander.^[7][8][14]
4. (intransitive, literary) To wish evil (on someone).^[10][15][1]

Word family

• maledetto
• maledizione
• maledicente
• stramaledire

Related words

• benedire
• dire
• male
• maldicenza
• Latin maledīcō

Usage notes

Maledire is conjugated like dire except in the imperative, maledici; popular usage also has the imperfect maledivo and the past historic maledii.^[10][13][1] The past participle maledetto is much used as an adjective.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2328
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli