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ridere

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈri.de.re/[1]

Forms

ridere (first-person singular present rìdo, first-person singular past historic rìsi, past participle rìso, auxiliary avére)[1] Older forms include Old Italian riare, ridare, riere and rire.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin rīdere (“to laugh”), the form used by Christian writers from the 4th century in place of classical ⟨rīdēre⟩, moved to the third conjugation after the perfect ⟨rīsī⟩, as ardere was after ⟨arsi⟩.[3][4][1] The verb is found throughout Romance: French rire, Occitan rire, Catalan riure, Spanish reír, Portuguese rir, Sardinian rìere and Romanian râde.[5][6] DEI calls it pan-dialectal in Italy, except in Lombardy, Trentino and eastern Piedmont, where Lombard grignàr has taken its place.[7]

The Latin verb has no secure Indo-European etymology.[8][3][9] De Vaan rejects the old comparison with Sanskrit व्रीडते (vrīḍate, “is ashamed”) as unjustified in meaning.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the northern form riare in Gerardo Patecchio; the Tuscan ridere appears in Bono Giamboni before 1292.[3][5][4] In the Convivio (1304–1308) Dante asks “E che è ridere, se non una corruscazione della dilettazione dell'anima, cioè un lume apparente di fuori secondo sta dentro?” (And what is laughing but a flash of the soul's delight, a light showing outside as it is within?).[3][10]

Semantic evolution

From laughter the verb passed to any show of joy (Dante, 1304–1308), and in literary use to shining and sparkling (Dante, 1313–1319) and to the bright colours of nature (Alberto della Piagentina, before 1332).[3] Petrarch wrote “ridono i prati, e 'l ciel si rasserena” (the meadows laugh and the sky clears).[11] The pronominal ridersi di “to make fun of” is recorded before 1294 in Brunetto Latini, and “not to care about, not to fear” in a collection of Tuscan proverbs of 1853.[3]

The noun riso “laughter” goes back to the 13th century, and ridicolo to the mid-14th;[3][5] risata is recorded before 1536, ridacchiare in the 16th century, ridanciano in 1891 and ridarella “fit of giggles” in 1928.[3][5] Ridicolizzare (1815–1821 in DELI, 1789 in Nocentini) copies French ridiculiser.[3][5] Familiar phrases include ridere sotto i baffi, far ridere i polli and the proverb ride bene chi ride ultimo.[11][12][13] Jokingly, shoes whose soles have come away from the uppers are said to “laugh”.[12]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses ridere.[3][4]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses ridersi for “to mock”.[3]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante defines laughter in the Convivio.[3]
  • 1313–1319 – Dante uses ridere for “to shine”.[3]
  • Before 1536 – Risata is recorded.[3]
  • 1891 – Ridanciano is recorded.[3][5]
  • 1928 – Ridarella is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To laugh: Il pubblico rideva a ogni battuta del comico.[4][12][14][11][1]
  2. ridere di: to laugh at, to mock: Smettila di ridere dei suoi errori.[4][12][11][13]
  3. (figurative, literary) To shine, to sparkle; to look bright and cheerful: Le ridevano gli occhi per la contentezza.[14][11][3]
  4. (literary) To be favourable, to smile on: Quell'anno la sorte rise ai contadini.[14][11]
  5. (jocular) Of shoes, to gape open at the sole.[12]
  6. ridersela, ridersi di: to laugh to oneself; not to care about: Si ride delle critiche.[14][3]

Noun

  1. Laughing, laughter, chiefly in morire dal ridere, crepare dal ridere “to die laughing”.[14][13]

Word family

  • riso
  • risata
  • ridente
  • ridacchiare
  • ridanciano
  • ridarella
  • risolino
  • ridicolaggine
  • ridicolizzare
  • arridere
  • ridevole
  • ridicolo
  • risarella
  • risibile
  • sorridere
  • deridere
  • irridere
  • Latin rīdeō

Usage notes

The past historic is risi and the past participle riso; the auxiliary is avere.[1][12][15] Da ridere describes comic entertainment as opposed to the dramatic, and ridendo e scherzando means “without noticing, little by little”.[12][11]

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. 16, 182
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3250
  8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli