muggito

Forms

muggito m (plural muggiti)^[1] Old Italian forms include mugito, mogito, muzito and mugitu.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mūgītus (“lowing, roaring”), the noun formed from mūgiō (“to low, bellow”) with the suffix -tus.^{[4][5][6][7][1]} Wiktionary also allows a derivation from the past participle of the Italian verb muggire.^[1] Devoto takes the Latin noun as the source but sees the influence of the verb in its form: the older Italian spelling is Old Italian mugito, and the form with the double consonant of the verb is recorded from Annibal Caro, who died in 1566.^[8][4]

The verb is inherited from mūgiō and is first recorded in the 13th-century Piedmontese sermons known as the Sermoni subalpini, then before 1327 in Cecco d'Ascoli.^[2][4] It has kept its popular form in Sardinian muire and Romanian mugi, while French mugir and Spanish mugir were taken again from Latin.^[5]

DELI traces the Latin verb to an imitative base mū, the sound of a bull's lowing, and de Vaan also calls it onomatopoeic.^[4][9] Nocentini and de Vaan take the imitation back to Indo-European, Proto-Indo-European *mū̆g-, comparing Ancient Greek μύζω (múzō, “to mutter, moan”) and Hittite mūgae- (“to invoke, entreat”).^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Tuscan Questioni filosofiche, after 1298, where the word names the deep, drawn-out call of cattle.^[2] DELI's first dated example is a sermon of Giordano da Pisa, before 1311: Diede il nitrito a' cavalli, il mugito a' tori, il ruggito a' leoni (“He gave the neigh to horses, the lowing to bulls, the roar to lions”).^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word was extended to the loud, long cry of other large animals and to the roar of a place or of the elements.^[2] Domenico Cavalca, before 1342, compared a prayer said without devotion to the lowing of an ox.^[4][3] The figurative literary sense “roar of a rough sea, of the wind, of thunder” is dated by DELI from Giulio Camillo Delminio, before 1544;^[4] DELI notes that Latin already used the verb this way.^[4]

Later writers use the word for a dull, prolonged human cry of pain or rage;^[11][6][12] Sabatini–Coletti and Treccani quote Montale's i muggiti umani.^[11][6][12] The literary pastoral image survives in Foscolo's Sepolcri, where the Lombard Sardanapalo finds sweet only il muggito de' buoi.^[3]

Timeline

• After 1298 – The Questioni filosofiche give the first record of the word.^[2]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses mugito of bulls.^[4]
• Before 1327 – The verb muggire is recorded in Cecco d'Ascoli.^[4]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses mugito.^[4]
• Before 1544 – Giulio Camillo Delminio uses the word of the roar of the sea, the wind or thunder.^[4]
• Before 1566 – Annibal Caro writes muggito with the double consonant.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lowing or mooing of cattle: Dalla stalla arrivava il muggito delle vacche.^{[11][13][14][1]}
2. (by extension) A deep, drawn-out howl of pain or rage.^[11][14][15]
3. (figurative, literary) The dull, rumbling roar of the sea, thunder or the wind.^[11][16][6]

Related words

• muggire
• mugghio
• Latin mūgiō

Usage notes

Sabatini–Coletti gives mugghio as a synonym.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli