odiare

Forms

odiare (first-person singular present òdio, first-person singular past historic odiài, past participle odiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed in Italian from the noun for “hatred”: from Italian odio + -are.^[2][3][1][4] The noun is a learned word, borrowed from Latin odium (“hatred”), from ōdī (“I hate”), a perfect with present sense; the inherited doublet of the noun is uggia.^[2][5][1] The Latin verb had only perfect forms.^[6][7]

DELI finds no sure Indo-European comparison for the Latin verb, while Nocentini compares Ancient Greek ὀδύσσασθαι (odússasthai, “to be angry”) and an Armenian verb meaning “to hate”.^[2][5] De Vaan reconstructs a PIE perfect Proto-Indo-European *h₃e-h₃(o)d- (“to hate”) and a noun Proto-Indo-European *h₃e/od-io- (“hatred”), and adds Old English atol (“evil”) and Old Norse etja (“to incite”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record, in the sense “to hold in hatred”, is an anonymous poem before 1250, which says that many women have husbands by whom they are bitterly hated.^[2][8] GRADIT gives the same date.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The weaker sense “to dislike, regard with aversion” is in Giacomo da Lentini, also before 1250.^[2] In the love poetry of the 13th century odiare was also said of a lady who did not return a lover's feelings: Guittone d'Arezzo complains “since for loving you hate me to death”.^[8] The reciprocal odiarsi “to hate one another” is first dated 1551, in Leonardo Contarini.^[2]

The adjective odiabile “hateful” is Italian, from the verb (Domenico Cavalca, before 1342), while Dante's odibile echoes Latin odibilis.^[2] Today the verb ranges from deep hostility to mere distaste for a food or a habit.^[3][9]

Timeline

• 1219 – The noun odio is first recorded, in the Breve di Montieri.^[2]
• Before 1250 – An anonymous poet uses odiare “to hate”.^[2]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses it for “to dislike”.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses odiabile.^[2]
• 1551 – Leonardo Contarini uses the reciprocal odiarsi.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hate, to feel strong hostility towards someone: odiare i propri persecutori, farsi odiare, to make oneself hated.^[3][9][10]
2. To loathe, to feel deep aversion for something: Ha sempre odiato l'ipocrisia.^[3][9]
3. (weakened) To dislike, not to be able to stand: Odio aspettare in fila.^[3][9][10]
4. (reflexive, odiarsi) To hate oneself; reciprocal, to hate each other: Dopo il divorzio si odiano.^[9][11]

Word family

• odiabile
• odiato
• odiatore

Related words

• odio
• odioso
• uggia
• Latin odi

Usage notes

Odiare a morte means to hate implacably.^[8][10] The stress falls on the stem in the singular present (io òdio, tu òdi), as in the noun odio.^[1][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse