negare

Forms

negare (first-person singular present négo or nègo or (archaic) niègo or (ditto) niégo, first-person singular past historic negài, past participle negàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin negō (“to say no, deny”).^[2][1] DELI classes it as a learned word, but DEI and GDLI treat it as a word of the western Romance area, and GDLI notes that its stressed forms, spelled ⟨niego⟩, ⟨niega⟩ in old texts, have the diphthong.^[3][4][2]

The same verb is French nier, Occitan negar, Catalan negar, Spanish negar and Portuguese negar.^[5][6] In Logudorese, Sardinian neare means “to accept”, which Salvioni explained as “to say no out of politeness”.^[6]

Most sources derive the Latin verb from the negation nec (“nor, not”), with the /k/ voiced between vowels.^[7][8][2] Devoto took the stem ⟨neg-⟩ as a variant of ⟨nec⟩, the short form of neque.^[9] Nocentini instead sees the negation ne strengthened by an enclitic particle like Ancient Greek γε (ge), the same element as in neglegō (“to neglect”) and negōtium (“business”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the first record to the first half of the 13th century.^[7] GDLI's oldest quotations, by an anonymous poet and by Brunetto Latini, use it for refusing to give something (Ad ogn'altro lo nego, “I deny it to everyone else”).^[2] DELI's first dated sense is “to say no, answer no”, in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “not to grant” is in Dante, who writes in the Vita nuova that the lady mi negò lo suo dolcissimo salutare (“denied me her sweetest greeting”).^[3][2] Boccaccio has the sense “to declare untrue what others maintain” (1353), and also a construction on the Latin model, “to say that … not”.^[3][7][10]

The proverb chi tutto nega, tutto confessa (“who denies everything confesses everything”) is in the Tuscan proverb collections.^[11][10] The old sense “to renounce, disown” is obsolete.^[12][7] The reflexive negarsi came to mean “to make oneself unavailable”, as in negarsi al telefono.^[12][13] The photographic terms negativa and negativo follow English negative (1853).^[3]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – GRADIT's date for the first record.^[7]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for “to say no”.^[3]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses negazione.^[3]
• 1305–1306 – Negativo is recorded in Giordano da Pisa.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “not to grant”.^[3]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “to declare untrue”.^[3]
• 1869 – Negativa for a photographic negative is in Tommaseo–Bellini.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deny, declare untrue what others claim: L'imputato ha respinto ogni addebito e ha negato tutto.^[7][13][12]
2. To refuse to accept as true or existing: negare l'esistenza dei fantasmi.^[7][8]
3. (with non) To admit, grant: Non nego che la proposta mi tenti.^[7][13][14]
4. (intransitive) To say no; to refuse to confess: Messo alle strette, il ragazzo negò.^[7][12][15]
5. To refuse, not to grant: Il comune ci ha negato il permesso.^[7][13][12]
6. (obsolete) To renounce, disown; the same as rinnegare.^[7][12]
7. (negarsi) To deny oneself something; to make oneself unavailable to someone: negarsi al telefono.^[13][12][8]

Word family

• negabile
• innegabile
• negato
• negarsi

Related words

• negativo
• negatore
• negazione
• rinnegare
• abnegare
• denegare
• negozio
• Latin negō
• French nier

Usage notes

Negare l'evidenza is to deny what is plain.^[7][14] Farsi negare is to have others say that one is not in.^[14] Older forms of the present have the diphthong: niego, nieghi.^[13][12] A separate Old Italian negare “to drown” is a shortening of annegare.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2563
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli