menzogna

Forms

menzogna f (plural menzogne)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *mentionia, a Vulgar Latin noun that is not found in texts.^[2][3][4][1] As to its formation, DELI, GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti start from Latin mentiō (“mention, a calling to mind”), GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti taking the form as its neuter plural, with the meaning drawn towards mentīrī (“to lie”); on this view the word first meant “something (falsely) recalled”.^[2][4][5][6] Devoto describes it as a collective abstract noun built on the Latin word for “mention” and crossed in sense with the verb for “to lie”.^[7] Nocentini and Treccani instead derive it directly from the verb, as “the act of lying”.^[3][8] Wiktionary also allows Late Latin mentiō (“lie”), and the Romanian-language REW gives “lie” as a sense of the Latin noun, continued in Romanian minciună.^[1][9]

DELI quotes Jakob Jud (1950), who saw the new word as a mark of the victorious Church: Christian teaching counted lying as part of the devil's nature, and that view shaped the coinage.^[2] Tommaseo already rejected a popular derivation from a Latin phrase meaning “dreams of the mind”, and compared the ending with words such as Latin castimōnia.^[10]

The same Vulgar Latin form gave Old French mensoigne, Old Occitan mensonha, Romansh manzögna and Sicilian minzogna.^[3][9][1] Modern French mensonge goes back to a variant Vulgar Latin *mentiōnica; it was feminine in Old French and later became masculine after songe (“dream”).^[3][9][11] Spanish and Catalan use other formations from the same verb, Spanish mentira and Catalan mentida.^[11][1]

The Latin noun is built on the root of Latin mēns (“mind”) with the suffix -tiō.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the word before 1294, in Guittone d'Arezzo and Brunetto Latini, with the sense of a statement knowingly false;^[2][13] Zingarelli has it before 1250.^[2][13] The derivative menzognero “lying, deceitful” is recorded even earlier, as menzonero in Guido Faba (1242–1243).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already set the word in moral and literary contexts: Dante advises silence about a truth “that has the face of a lie” (Sempre a quel ver c'ha faccia di menzogna / de' l'uom chiuder le labbra), and Boccaccio speaks of a truth that looks more like a lie than what it was (di menzogna sembianza).^[10][4][8] Petrarch has the pairing parolette anzi menzogne (little words, or rather lies).^[10]

In the 16th century Benedetto Varchi drew the line still felt today: saying something false that one believes true is telling bugie, while saying something one knows to be false is mentire or dire menzogna.^[2] Modern dictionaries treat menzogna as the more elevated and emphatic word beside the everyday bugia, which usually names a smaller fault.^[13][8] The phrase menzogne convenzionali comes from the Italian title of Max Nordau's book of 1883 on the conventional lies of civilised society, and is used for the small hypocrisies of social life.^[8]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Menzogna is used by Guittone d'Arezzo and Brunetto Latini.^[2][4]
• Before 1565 – Benedetto Varchi distinguishes bugia from menzogna.^[2]
• 1883 – Max Nordau's book gives rise to the phrase menzogne convenzionali.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lie, a falsehood: a statement made knowingly against the truth, to deceive or for some advantage; a more formal word than bugia: Ai giudici ha raccontato una menzogna dopo l'altra.^{[4][5][6][13]}
2. menzogna pietosa: a white lie, one told for a good purpose.^[4]
3. (uncountable) The habit of lying; deceit, pretence: La loro amicizia era fondata sulla menzogna.^[4][5][14]

Word family

• menzognero

Related words

• mentire
• menzione
• bugia
• French mensonge
• Latin mentio

Usage notes

Avere faccia (or sembianza) di menzogna, literary, is said of something true that looks false.^[4][8] The word is pronounced with /dz/ or /ts/.^[1][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 278
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana