menare

Forms

menare (first-person singular present méno, first-person singular past historic menài, past participle menàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin mināre (“to drive animals”), which first meant to push on or goad an animal and is recorded in that sense from Apuleius in the 2nd century AD.^[2][3][4][1] It comes from classical Latin minor (“to threaten”): the step from threatening to leading lay in driving animals with threats or blows, as a gloss in Festus shows, which explains those who drive horses as those who threaten them.^[2][5] The same word is French mener, Occitan menar, Catalan menar and Romanian mâna “to drive cattle”.^[3][6]

Nocentini traces the Latin verb to a sense “to stand out, loom”, kept in ēmineō (“to stand out”) and prōmineō (“to jut out”), and probably to the family of mōns (“mountain”) and mentum (“chin”).^[3] Devoto also links it with the root of the word for mountain.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The phrase gran gioia menare “to make great joy” appears in the Canzone del Re Giovanni, before 1237.^[2] The sense “to lead, guide, bring” is in Dante in 1293–1294, in the Vita nuova: mi menava là ove tante donne mostravano le loro bellezze (“he took me where many ladies were showing their beauty”).^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

By the end of the 13th century the verb also meant “to drag”, “to beat, strike”, and “to shake, wag”;^[2] “to deal (a blow)” and “to spend (time)” follow in the 14th century, with “to cause” in Francesco da Barberino.^[2] Old Italian also used it for “to beget”.^[9][10]

The sense “to beat” is now typical of Rome and the centre-south: DELI explains it from the driving of sheep.^[2][11] Menare per il naso “to lead by the nose”, also French since 1559, recalls cattle led by a ring through the nose.^[2] A menadito “perfectly” is recorded from 1640, and menata “a sound beating” from 1521.^[2]

Timeline

• Before 1237 – Menare appears in the Canzone del Re Giovanni.^[2]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses it for “to lead”.^[2]
• 13th century – It is used for beating and for shaking.^[2]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses it for spending time.^[2]
• 1521 – Menata “beating” is recorded in Marin Sanudo.^[2]
• 1640 – A menadito is recorded in Oudin.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary or regional) To lead, take, bring somewhere: La stradina mena alla spiaggia.^[4][12][13]
2. (archaic) To drive a vehicle.^[4][1]
3. (literary) To sweep along, drag by force.^[4][11]
4. (literary) To spend or lead (time, a life).^[4][12]
5. To shake, move rapidly: menare la coda, to wag the tail.^[4][14]
6. To deal (blows) with force.^[4][12]
7. (colloquial) To beat someone up.^[4][14][11]
8. (literary) To cause, produce: menare scalpore.^[4][12]
9. (vulgar) To masturbate.^[4][14]

Word family

• rimenare
• menadito
• menarola
• menata
• mena
• menagramo
• dimenare
• dimenio
• tramenare
• tramenio
• ammenare
• menamento

Related words

• minaccia
• French mener

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include menare il can per l'aia (to beat about the bush), menare per il naso (to deceive), menare vanto (to boast) and menare le mani (to come to blows).^[4][12][14]

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 m n o 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 277
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 10, 56
9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2421
11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ 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