rabbioso

Forms

rabbioso (feminine rabbiosa, masculine plural rabbiosi, feminine plural rabbiose)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian rabioso, Old Italian rabioxo and Old Italian raioso.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rabiōsus (“raving, rabid”), from rabiēs (“rage; rabies”) with the suffix -ōsus.^[3][4][1][5] The same word is Old Occitan rabios, Spanish rabioso and Portuguese raivoso.^[4] Sources differ on how it entered Italian: the GDLI calls it learned, Devoto–Oli derive it from the Italian noun, and Devoto explains it as the Latin word influenced by rabbia, whose double ⟨bb⟩ it shares.^[2][6][7]

The Latin noun is related to rabiō (“to rave”), which Nocentini compares with Sanskrit words meaning “violence, impetus” and “impetuous”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the early 13th-century Canzone del fi' Aldobrandino, in the sense “having rabies”: Fugge ogni uomo da me più pauroso / che non dal can rabbioso (“Every man flees from me more fearfully than from a rabid dog”).^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Dante, in 1300–1313, already used the word in the extended senses “furious” and “immoderate, violent”, and Petrarch in 1374 for a person filled with rage.^[9] Dante describes Gianni Schicchi going about rabbioso, mauling others like a rabid beast.^[11]

The modern senses keep both lines: the medical one, of an animal or person with rabies, and the figurative ones, angry, quick-tempered, fierce, and of hunger, love or wind, violent and excessive.^[3][6][12] In sport it is used for a short, intense effort, such as a cyclist's sprint.^[3][6]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – The Canzone del fi' Aldobrandino uses it for a rabid dog.^[9]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “furious” and “violent”.^[9]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses it for a person filled with rage.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (medicine, veterinary) rabid, having rabies: Il cacciatore fu morso da una volpe rabbiosa.^[3][6][11]
2. furious, in a rage; also quick to anger: Quando ha visto il conto era rabbioso.^[3][6][12]
3. Showing rage or fury: un grido rabbioso.^[3][12][11]
4. Fierce, intense, dogged; of an effort, sudden and forceful: una rimonta rabbiosa.^[3][6][12]
5. Of a feeling, excessive, immoderate: fame rabbiosa.^[3][6][13]
6. Of natural forces, violent, raging: vento rabbioso.^[3][12][11]

Word family

• rabbiosamente
• rabbiosità

Related words

• rabbia
• arrabbiare
• arrabbiato
• Latin rabiēs

Usage notes

In older veterinary language rabbioso was also a noun, the name of rabies in horses and other animals.^[14] With the sense “rabid”, arrabbiato is used too.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 182
11. ^ a b c d e 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 d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET