piangere

Forms

piangere (first-person singular present piàngo, first-person singular past historic piànsi, past participle piànto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The older and regional form piagnere is still used in literature.^[2][1] Old forms include Old Italian pianzere and Old Italian piaggere.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin plangere (“to strike, beat; to beat one's breast, mourn”).^[4][5][6][1] The sense moved from striking to weeping through the gesture of beating one's breast in grief;^[4][2] Migliorini notes that plain weeping was no longer enough, so people tore their cheeks and beat their breasts, and the verbs for these gestures came to mean “to lament” and “to weep”.^[4][2] GDLI adds that it replaced, together with the older Latin plōrō, the classical Latin fleō (“to weep”).^[3]

The same verb is Romanian plânge, French plaindre (“to pity; to complain”), Occitan planher, Catalan plànyer and Spanish plañir.^[5][7][1] The Latin verb has a nasal present; de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *plāngō and Proto-Indo-European *plh₂-n-g- (“to hit”), with Ancient Greek πλάζω (plázō, “to drive off course”) and Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐍆𐌻𐍉𐌺𐌿𐌽 (faiflokun, “they beat”) as cognates.^[8] Nocentini compares Ancient Greek πλήσσω (plḗssō, “to strike”), Lithuanian plàkti (“to strike”) and Russian пла́кать (plákatʹ, “to weep”), which shows the same development.^[5][1]

The past participle pianto “weeping” continues Latin plānctus, and the variant piagnere gave piagnone and piagnisteo.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, of the Sicilian school, before 1250, in the sense “to shed tears from grief or emotion”.^[4][6] The infinitive used as a noun, “weeping”, is in an anonymous poet of the first half of the 13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

By the end of the 13th century the verb also meant “to suffer greatly” (Brunetto Latini, before 1294), and Dante used it transitively for “to lament, mourn” someone or something (before 1321); “to shed (tears)” is of the 14th century.^[4] The noun pianto is as old as the verb, and piangente “weeping” is in Boccaccio (1341–1342).^[4]

Figurative uses extend the verb to animals that whimper, to plants and trees that drip sap, and to rain.^[6] Idioms include piangere sul latte versato “to cry over spilt milk”, piangere miseria “to plead poverty”, piangere come una vite tagliata “to cry one's eyes out” and ridere per non piangere.^[6][2] In card games il piatto piange says that someone has not paid into the pot.^[6]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses piangere “to weep”.^[4][6]
• First half of the 13th century – The nominalized piangere “weeping”.^[4]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for “to suffer greatly”.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it transitively, “to mourn”.^[4]
• 1341–1342 – Piangente in Boccaccio.^[4]
• 14th century – “to shed (tears)” in Rinieri dei Rinaldeschi.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To weep, to cry, shedding tears from grief, emotion or pain: Il bambino piangeva perché aveva perso il pallone, piangere di gioia.^[6][2][1]
2. (intransitive) Of the eyes, to water from an irritant: Mi piangono gli occhi quando taglio la cipolla.^[6]
3. (intransitive) To suffer, to lament one's troubles: piangere sui propri guai.^[6]
4. (intransitive) Of animals, to whimper, (figurative) to drip, ooze.^[6]
5. (transitive) To mourn, grieve for: Tutto il paese pianse la sua morte.^[6][4][2]
6. (transitive) To shed: piangere lacrime amare.^[4][6]

Word family

• piangente
• pianto
• piagnisteo
• piagnone
• piagnucolare
• compiangere
• compianto
• rimpiangere
• rimpianto

Related words

• piaga
• Latin plangō
• French plaindre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill