redine

Forms

redine f (plural redini)^[1] The older singular was redina, and the plural also had the form redine.^[2][3][4] An Old Italian variant was retene.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin retina, recorded in the glossary of Ansileubus (650–800).^[5][1][6] The Latin word is usually taken as a deverbal noun from Latin retineō (“to hold back”).^[5][7][8] DELI finds more convincing Peruzzi's explanation, a back-formation from retināculum (“something that holds back”), whose plural retinācula was the usual word for reins;^[5][8][1] Meyer-Lübke allows both.^[5][8][1] Körting cites D'Ovidio's idea that the imperative retine played a part.^[9]

The word is French rêne, Occitan renha, Catalan regna, Spanish rienda and Portuguese rédea.^[7][8] According to Migliorini, as DELI reports, it replaced the classical habēna (“rein”) when the loss of initial ⟨h⟩ and the change of *-b-* to a fricative made that word sound like avēna (“oats”).^[5] The Latin verb is re- with teneō (“to hold”).^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the plural redine in Guido delle Colonne, before 1290, as a variant of retene, for the leather straps fixed to a horse's bit.^[5][6] The singular redina appears around 1350 in the Italian Crescenzi, Giovanni Villani, Passavanti and Boccaccio.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio already uses the reins for command and government, before 1375.^[5] The figure is now the commonest use: one holds or hands over le redini of a firm, a family or a state.^[6][3][11] In 1973 the word was recorded for the harness of straps round a small child learning to walk.^[5]

The Treccani dictionary notes that redine is the more formal synonym of briglia, and that strictly the briglie are fixed to the bit and the redini to the briglie.^[11] Ornithologists use the plural for the lore, the space between a bird's eye and its beak.^[6][11]

Timeline

• Before 1290 – Guido delle Colonne uses the plural redine.^[5][6]
• c. 1350 – The singular redina appears in the Italian Crescenzi and in Giovanni Villani.^[5]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses the word for command or government.^[5]
• 1973 – A dictionary records it for a child's walking harness.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural) rein: each of the two leather straps fixed to a horse's bit and held by the rider or driver: Tirò le redini e il cavallo si fermò.^[6][3][2][1]
2. (figurative, usually plural) Control, direction, leadership: prendere le redini del partito.^[6][3][2][4]
3. (ornithology, usually plural) The lore, the part of a bird's head between the eye and the base of the beak.^[6][11]

Related words

• ritenere
• briglia
• Latin retineō
• French rêne

Usage notes

The word is used almost only in the plural redini.^[3][2][11] Both an open and a closed *e* are heard in the first syllable.^[1][4] A redine bandita, “with loose reins, at full tilt”, is obsolete.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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)