paventare

Forms

paventare (first-person singular present pavènto, first-person singular past historic paventài, past participle paventàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *paventāre, a Vulgar Latin verb formed from Latin pavēns, the present participle of paveō (“to be afraid”).^[2][3][4][1] DEI calls the Italian verb a learned word, while Nocentini counts it among the Romance formations of Latin origin.^[5][3] Devoto sees in it a crossing with the classical frequentative pavitāre (“to dread”).^[6]

The Latin verb has derivatives pavor (“sudden fear”) and pavidus (“frightened”).^[7] Its further origin is unclear: one view makes it the stative “to be struck, to fear” beside paviō (“to beat”), while Schrijver connects Celtic nouns meaning “fear”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Dante's Vita nuova, about 1292–1293, with the sense of feeling fear and foreseeing something bad.^[8] GRADIT dates it before 1294, DELI before 1321 with Dante.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb was a word of poetry: Chiaro Davanzati writes se non fosse blasmo che pavento, “if it were not for the blame I fear”, and Petrarch ch'i' pavento e bramo, “which I fear and long for”.^[9] Tommaseo marks it as a word of the written language.^[10]

It took both constructions of temere: transitive, as in Petrarch's il folgorar pavento “I fear the lightning”, and intransitive, “to be afraid”.^[11][12] Goldoni used it for “to suspect”, a rare extension.^[11] Of animals it means “to shy”, a popular and regional sense.^[11][4] Old derivatives include paventamento (13th century) and paventoso (14th century).^[5] In Sicilian, paventu also means “a scream”.^[5]

Timeline

• About 1292–1293 – Dante uses the verb in the Vita nuova.^[8]
• Before 1294 – GRADIT's date of first record.^[4]
• 13th century – Paventamento “fear” is recorded.^[5]
• 14th century – Paventoso “fearful” is recorded.^[5]
• 18th century – Goldoni uses paventare for “to suspect”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, formal) To dread, to fear something one expects to be harmful; also with di and an infinitive or che and the subjunctive: paventano un nuovo rincaro.^{[4][12][13][1]}
2. (intransitive, literary) To be afraid: paventava per la sorte dei figli.^[12][4][11]
3. (intransitive, regional) Of animals, to shy or take fright.^[4][13][11]
4. (intransitive, rare) To suspect.^[11][1]

Word family

• paventamento
• pavento
• paventoso

Related words

• paura
• pavido
• pavore
• spaventare
• Latin paveō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2809
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 870
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse