minacciare

Forms

minacciare (first-person singular present minàccio, first-person singular past historic minacciài, past participle minacciàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

DELI derives it from the noun minaccia (“threat”), but adds that the formation may be very old: it may be inherited from Vulgar Latin *mināciāre.^[2][3][1] That verb is documented as manatiare in the Reichenau Glosses of about 750.^[2] The noun continues Latin minācia, in classical Latin found almost only in the plural, from the adjective mināx (“threatening”), properly “about to fall”.^[2][4][1] This comes from the deponent minor (“to jut out, overhang; to threaten”), whose origin is obscure.^[2][4]

The verb has cognates across Romance: French menacer, Old Occitan menasar, Catalan menassar, Spanish amenazar and Portuguese ameaçar, and Romanian amenința, formed in the same way.^[5][6] The Latin ⟨-ci-⟩ gave Italian ⟨-cci-⟩, as in the noun.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Brunetto Latini (before 1294), with the sense of frightening or intimidating someone with threats;^[2][7] Zingarelli dates the verb to about 1261.^[2][7] The GDLI quotes Latini on people who had been forte minacciati, “strongly threatened”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

By about 1336 Boccaccio uses the verb with a thing as subject, for foreboding something feared or unwanted, and before 1492 Lorenzo de' Medici has the sense “to put in danger”.^[2] Dante's sinners threaten col dito, with the finger, and Tasso's warrior raises his brow e minacciar le stelle, as if to threaten the stars.^[9] Old and dialect forms include manazare, menazzare and minazzare.^[8]

In the modern language the verb is used of weather and events (minaccia pioggia, it looks like rain), and figuratively of a mountain or a castle that towers over a valley.^[3][10][11] Tommaseo records the Tuscan proverb Chi minaccia, non vuol dare, “he who threatens does not want to strike”.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 750 – The Reichenau Glosses have manatiare.^[2]
• c. 1261 – First record according to Zingarelli.^[7]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses minacciare “to threaten”.^[2]
• c. 1336 – Boccaccio uses it for “forebode”.^[2]
• Before 1492 – Lorenzo de' Medici uses it for “endanger”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To threaten someone, with words or gestures, so as to frighten them or force them to do something: Lo minacciarono con una pistola.^[3][10][12]
2. To say that one will do something harmful (with di and the infinitive): Ha minacciato di andarsene per sempre.^[10][7][11]
3. (figurative) To put at risk, to endanger: Le frane minacciano il paese.^[3][12][7]
4. (figurative) To portend something bad; also impersonal: Il cielo minaccia neve.^[3][12][11]
5. (figurative, literary) To tower over something with an imposing, fearsome look.^[3][10][7]

Word family

• minacciatore
• riminacciare
• minaccioso

Related words

• minaccia
• menare
• Latin minācia
• French menacer

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 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 10, 426
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse