raccontare

Forms

raccontare (first-person singular present raccónto, first-person singular past historic raccontài, past participle raccontàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] An older spelling is Old Italian racontare, and the archaic past participle is racconto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian ra- + contare, from “contare” in its sense “to tell, relate”, with the prefix “ra-” as a reinforcement, parallel to “ri-” in archaic ricontare.^[4][5][6][1] The GDLI analyses the prefix as Latin re- plus ad- with intensive force.^[7]

Contare is Latin computō (“to reckon, count”), from con- and putō (“to reckon, think”).^[5][4] The sense “to tell” developed early in the Romance languages from “to enumerate, give an account”, and only French separates the two in spelling: French compter (“to count”) and conter (“to tell”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the word to 1260–1261, and Zingarelli to about 1261.^[5][2] DELI's first record, with the sense “to report words or events, especially by word of mouth”, is in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the Bible translations use it for narrating in writing, in a plain tone.^[4] Boccaccio has the woman's maid “il raccontò” to her mistress, and the Italian translation of Gregory the Great's Dialogues uses the old participle: “tutto quello che mi avete racconto” (all that you have told me).^[8][7] Zingarelli also gives an obsolete sense “to mention, count among”.^[2][9] The noun racconto is recorded in Castelvetro in 1570 for what is told, and in Tasso in 1594 for the act of telling.^[4]

Modern usage has many idioms: raccontare per filo e per segno “to tell in every detail”, poterla raccontare “to live to tell the tale”, and a chi la racconti? “who do you think you're fooling?”.^[10][9][11]

Timeline

• 1260–1261 – Nocentini's date of first record.^[5]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses raccontare.^[4]
• 14th century – Bible translations use it for narrating in writing.^[4]
• 14th century – Raccontabile in the Italian Livy.^[4]
• 1570 – Castelvetro uses racconto “story”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tell, to report facts or words, especially by word of mouth: Mi ha raccontato tutto quello che è successo alla festa.^{[6][11][12][1]}
2. To narrate a story, real or invented: Ogni sera il nonno ci raccontava una fiaba.^[6][11][10]
3. Of a book or film, to have as its subject: Il romanzo racconta la vita di un pescatore.^[6][11][12]
4. (intransitive) To talk about someone or something: Raccontami del tuo nuovo lavoro.^[6][2][10]
5. raccontarla: to try to make someone believe something untrue: a chi la racconti?^[11][2][9]

Word family

• racconto
• raccontabile
• raccontatore

Related words

• contare
• conto
• narrare
• French conter

Usage notes

The reflexive raccontarsi means “to talk about oneself”.^[2][12] An obsolete second raccontarsi, “to make peace, be reconciled”, formed from accontare, is found in the old Italian translation of Seneca's letters.^[7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 229
8. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse