mormorare

Forms

mormorare (first-person singular present mórmoro, first-person singular past historic mormorài, past participle mormoràto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include murmurare and mormurare.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is learned according to DELI: it is borrowed from Latin murmurāre (“to rumble, mutter, grumble”), formed on murmur (“low, continuous noise”), a word of imitative origin.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Latin already had all the senses the verb has in Italian.^[4] Nocentini instead counts it among the Latin words found in all the Romance languages: Old French marmouser, Occitan murmurar, Catalan murmurar, Spanish murmurar, Portuguese murmurar, Sardinian murmurare and Romanian murmura.^[9][10] French murmurer is recorded from the 12th century.^[11]

De Vaan notes that the Latin noun is recorded later than the verb and may be derived from it.^[12] It continues an earlier Proto-Italic *mormor-, from Proto-Indo-European *mr-mr- or *mormor-.^[12] The change of the first vowel to ⟨u⟩ is irregular, unless the ⟨u⟩ is imitative.^[12] The imitative word is already Indo-European, as Ancient Greek μορμύρω (mormúrō, “to roar and boil”) and Lithuanian murmėti (“to grumble”) show.^[9][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the verb to 1268, and GRADIT and Nocentini to the second half of the 13th century.^[13][5][9] DELI's oldest senses are “to grumble, complain”, in the Fatti di Cesare of the 13th century, and “to speak ill of someone”, in Giamboni before 1292.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses it for speaking softly, between 1313 and 1319, and for the low sound of running water, before 1321: Udir mi parve un mormorar di fiume (“I seemed to hear the murmur of a river”).^[4][14] Petrarch's clear spring spread its fresh, sweet water soavemente mormorando (“gently murmuring”).^[13][14] The transitive use, “to say in a low voice”, appears before 1333 in Simintendi's Ovid.^[4] In Boccaccio a story gives the ladies something to mormorare about and the young men something to laugh at.^[3]

The nouns follow the verb: mormorio is used of water and leaves about 1300, of one person in 1341–42, and of a crowd in Ariosto in 1516.^[4] Mormorazione, from Latin, means “backbiting” before 1342 in Cavalca.^[4][15] Today the verb covers a soft continuous sound, low speech, muttered discontent and gossip, and si mormora che means “rumour has it that”.^[5][6][7]

Timeline

• 1268 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[13]
• 13th century – The Fatti di Cesare use it for grumbling.^[4]
• Before 1292 – Giamboni uses it for speaking ill of someone.^[4]
• About 1300 – Mormorio is recorded in the Italian Albertano.^[4]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses it for speaking softly.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for the sound of running water.^[4]
• Before 1333 – Simintendi uses it transitively, “to say in a low voice”.^[4]
• Before 1342 – Cavalca uses mormorazione for backbiting.^[4]
• 1516 – Ariosto uses mormorio of the noise of a crowd.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of water, leaves or wind: to murmur, to make a soft, continuous sound: il torrente mormorava sotto il ponte.^{[5][7][13][6]}
2. (intransitive) To speak softly, to whisper.^[5][7][13]
3. (intransitive) To grumble, to complain under one's breath: gli spettatori presero a mormorare.^{[5][7][13][6]}
4. (intransitive) To gossip, to speak ill of someone behind their back.^{[5][7][13][6]}
5. (transitive) To say in a low voice: mormorare il nome di qualcuno.^{[5][7][13][6]}
6. (transitive) To spread a rumour: si mormora che “rumour has it that”.^[5][6][7]

Word family

• mormorio
• mormorazione
• mormoratore
• mormoracchiare
• mormoramento
• mormorante
• mormoreggiare
• mormoroso

Related words

• murmure
• Latin murmur
• French murmurer

Usage notes

The present is stressed on the first syllable: io mórmoro; the auxiliary is avere.^[6][13][8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2511
12. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 679