Etymologically
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rabbia

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Pronunciation

Forms

rabbia f (plural rabbie)[1] Old Italian also had rabia and raia.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin rabia (“rabies; fury”), recorded in imperial times (Servius) in place of classical Latin rabiēs (“madness; rabies”).[3][4][5][1] The same word is French rage, the source of English rage, and Occitan rabia, Spanish rabia and Portuguese raiva.[4][6]

The Latin noun is a derivative of rabiō (“to rave, to be mad”), a verb of popular character and of Indo-European origin.[3][4][1] Nocentini and Devoto compare Sanskrit रभस् (rabhas, “violence, impetuosity”).[4][7] De Vaan finds the etymology uncertain: Schrijver rejected the Sanskrit comparison and proposed a link with Tocharian A rapurñe (“desire”), and Iranian verbs of violent motion have also been compared.[8]

The /bj/ of the Latin word gave the double consonant of the Italian word, the normal Tuscan outcome of a labial before /j/.[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dante (1300–1313) has the word only in the figurative sense of indignation or fury, never for the disease.[3][5] The disease is first named in the 14th-century Libro di Mascalcia, a veterinary treatise.[3][10]

Semantic evolution

Other figurative senses followed in the early 14th century: eagerness or frenzy (Giordano da Pisa, 1305), the fury of inanimate things (Arrigo Simintendi, before 1333), and spite or vexation (Boccaccio, 1348–1353).[3] Petrarch calls the German soldiers la tedesca rabbia, “the German fury”, held back by the Alps.[5]

The modern language keeps the whole range, from the medical term to mild annoyance (mi fa rabbia, che rabbia!) and dogged effort (studiare con rabbia).[5][10][9] The proverb chi tutto vuole, di rabbia muore (“he who wants everything dies of rage”) warns against wanting too much.[11][12] The derivatives are old too: rabbioso from the early 13th century, arrabbiare from the end of the 13th, and the medical rabbico from 1829.[3][4]

Timeline

  • Early 13th century – The adjective rabbioso is recorded.[3][4]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses rabbia for indignation and fury.[3]
  • 1305 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for eagerness or frenzy.[3]
  • Before 1333 – Arrigo Simintendi uses it for the fury of the elements.[3]
  • 14th century – The Libro di Mascalcia names the disease.[3]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for spite or vexation.[3]
  • 1829 – Rabbico “of rabies” is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (pathology) rabies, a viral disease of mammals, especially dogs and wolves, passed to humans by bites.[5][10][13]
  2. anger, rage: violent irritation, often uncontrolled: Ha sbattuto la porta per la rabbia.[5][10][9]
  3. Vexation, annoyance, spite: Mi fa rabbia perdere il treno per un minuto.[5][9][13]
  4. Fierce determination: allenarsi con rabbia.[5][10][13]
  5. (uncommon) Intense craving: rabbia di potere.[5][10][11]
  6. (literary) The fury of natural forces, such as the wind or the sea.[5][9][13]

Word family

Usage notes

Rabbia silvestre is rabies in wild animals;[13][5] idrofobia is a synonym for the disease.[13][5] In the sense of anger the near-synonyms are collera and ira, and in familiar speech bile.[13][1] The exclamation che rabbia! expresses annoyance.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 178
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli