navigare

Forms

navigare (first-person singular present nàvigo, first-person singular past historic navigài, past participle navigàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian had navicare, and the northern texts have navegare.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin nāvigāre (“to sail”), a verb made from nāvis (“ship”).^[5][6][7][1] Devoto compares lītigō from līs and rēmigō from rēmus.^[8] Zingarelli treats the standard form as learned.^[9] The old Old Italian navicare, with ⟨c⟩, is explained by Sabatini–Coletti as following the suffix -icare and as a Tuscan overcorrection of a supposed northern voicing.^[10]

The verb lives on in the western Romance languages: French nager (“to swim”), Catalan navegar, Spanish navegar and Portuguese navegar, and with another suffix Occitan navejar.^[5][11][12] In southern Italy it is Tarantino naugare at Taranto.^[11][12] Meyer-Lübke thought the French verb might also come from a *naviare.^[11]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *neh₂-u- (“ship”), perhaps “the floating one”, and is related to Ancient Greek ναῦς (naûs, “ship”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is from the Tuscan poet Tomaso di Sasso, in the first half of the 13th century, in the sense “to travel by sea or on a river”.^[3] DELI's first is navicare in Guidotto da Bologna, in the 13th century, and navigare before 1321 in Dante.^[2] Medieval Latin naveghatorius is found at Bologna already in 1170.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante describes the Venetian arsenal, where the ships are repaired in winter ché navicar non ponno (“because they cannot sail”).^[4] Old Italian used it also for crossing a stretch of water, for steering a ship and for carrying goods by ship, and as a noun, il navigare, for seafaring.^[3][14] Petrarch has il navigar senz'arte, sailing without skill.^[14]

The figurative navigare fra due scogli, to be caught between two dangers, is recorded in 1686, and navigare in cattive acque, to be in difficulties, in 1869.^[2] The past participle navigato “experienced in life” appears in Leopardi in 1819.^[2] The verb was extended to aircraft and, at the end of the 20th century, to moving through computer networks: the GDLI's supplement quotes navigare sulla rete informatica from 1995.^[4][6] Dialects took it further: Umbrian navigà means “to stroll about”, and in the Chiana valley navecà means “to rave”.^[12]

Timeline

• 1170 – Medieval Latin naveghatorius appears at Bologna.^[2]
• 1200–1250 – Tomaso di Sasso uses the verb.^[3]
• 13th century – Guidotto da Bologna has navicare.^[2]
• 1282 – Zingarelli's date for navigare.^[9]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses navigare and navigante.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses navigazione.^[2]
• 1686 – Navigare fra due scogli appears in Segneri.^[2]
• 1819 – Leopardi uses navigato “experienced”.^[2]
• 1995 – The sense “to browse a computer network” is quoted from La Repubblica.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of a vessel or its passengers, to sail, to travel by water: Il traghetto navigava lentamente verso l'isola.^[6][7][9]
2. (intransitive) Of aircraft, to fly; to travel by air.^[6][7][9]
3. (intransitive) To work as a sailor; to go to sea.^[7][9][1]
4. (intransitive, figurative) To manage, to get by in difficulties.^[6][7][15]
5. (intransitive, computing) To browse the Internet or a network: navigare in Internet.^[6][7][10]
6. (transitive) To sail across, to navigate: Da giovane ha navigato il Pacifico.^[6][9][16]
7. (transitive, archaic) To carry by ship.^[6][9][16]

Word family

• navigante
• navigato
• navigabile
• navigabilità
• navigatore
• navigatorio
• navigazione
• circumnavigare
• rinavigare

Related words

• nave
• naviglio
• Latin nāvis

Usage notes

Navigare col vento in poppa or a gonfie vele means to go very well, and navigare a vista to proceed without a plan, from one step to the next.^[16][9][6]

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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 293
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2556
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana