Etymologically
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merda

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Pronunciation

Forms

merda f (plural merde, relational adjective merdoso, diminutive merdina or merdolina, pejorative merdaccia (“shitty person”))[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin merda (“dung, excrement”).[2][3][1] DELI and GDLI call it a learned word, but it is found throughout the Romance languages: French merde, Occitan merda, Catalan merda, Spanish mierda, Portuguese merda, Sardinian merda, Friulian mierde, Dalmatian miarda and Aromanian merdu.[4][5][2][6]

DELI and Zingarelli consider the origin of the Latin noun unknown or uncertain, and Devoto found no reliable Indo-European connection.[4][7][8] Nocentini compares Lithuanian smirdėti (“to stink”) and Russian смердеть (smerdét’, “to stink”).[2] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *(s)merdā and Proto-Indo-European *smerd-h₂- (“stench”), a collective meaning “what stinks” that came to mean “excrement”.[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in Iacopone da Todi, before 1306, and Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), in the sense “dung, excrement”.[4][10] Iacopone writes of a “vita de scrofa fetente, sogliata en merda lutosa” (life of a stinking sow, wallowing in muddy dung).[5]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “contemptible thing or person” is recorded in Agnolo Firenzuola (before 1543) and Michelangelo Buonarroti (before 1564).[4] The TLIO already has the insulting di merda in Old Italian, and merda d'orecchie for earwax.[10] The word was felt to be coarse: copyists of Dante sometimes replaced it with milder words such as feccia, sterco or puzza, and Carducci in 1857 wrote only the initial, m....[4] Treccani attributes the interjection merda! to the influence of French merde!.[11] Modern usage adds “a hopeless situation”, as in essere nella merda fino al collo.[3][7]

Timeline

  • Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses merda.[4][10]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses merda and merdoso in the Inferno.[4]
  • Before 1543 – Agnolo Firenzuola uses the word of something contemptible.[4]
  • 1857 – Carducci writes the word with only its initial.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (vulgar) excrement, dung, of people or animals.[3][12][13]
  2. (vulgar, figurative) Something worthless, or a contemptible person: Quel telefono è una merda.[3][12][13]
  3. (vulgar, figurative) A very unpleasant or hopeless situation: essere nella merda.[3][12][11]

Interjection

  1. (vulgar) An exclamation of anger or dismay: shit![3][12][1]

Word family

  • merdoso
  • merdaio
  • merdata
  • merdone
  • merdocco
  • smerdare
  • merdaccia

Usage notes

Fixed expressions include di merda “lousy”, pezzo di merda (a strong insult) and fare una figura di merda “to make a fool of oneself”.[3][7][11] Merdocco, a depilatory ointment, is a word of northern origin.[2][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 278
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 655