Etymologically
Log in

rinunciare

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 04:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ri.nunˈt͡ʃa.re/[1]

Forms

rinunciare (first-person singular present rinùncio, first-person singular past historic rinunciài, past participle rinunciàto, auxiliary avére)[1] The variant rinunziare is used in elevated style; older forms are Old Italian renunciare and Old Italian renunziare.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin renūntiō (“to report back; to renounce”).[5][6][7][1] The Latin verb is nūntiō (“to announce”) with the prefix re- and first meant “to announce in reply”; only through Church usage, in baptismal formulas renouncing the devil and sin, did it take the sense “to refuse, give up”, with the prefix now marking a contrary action.[5][3] The same verb is French renoncer and Spanish renunciar.[6]

The base nūntius (“messenger; message”) probably goes back to an older form with -ou-, but its further origin is unclear: it has been derived from Proto-Indo-European *neuH- (“to cry out”) and, from Latin novus (“new”), though the second is hard to justify morphologically.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in a translation of Rainerio da Perugia from the first half of the 13th century, with the legal sense of voluntarily refusing something one owns or has a right to.[5] Zingarelli dates the word to 1268.[9]

Semantic evolution

Dante wrote rinonciare, a Latinism not rare in Old Italian.[5] The old language also used the verb for “to announce, report”, as in the Novellino: “andaro gli ambasciatori, e rinunciaro e raccontaro ciò ch'aveano veduto e udito”, the ambassadors went and reported and told what they had seen and heard.[10][2] The sense “to decide not to do something” is recorded from Giovanni Ambrogio Marini (before 1677).[5]

The noun rinunzia appears in Vespasiano da Bisticci (before 1498), for the document of renunciation in Ariosto, and in the plural for privations and sacrifices only in 1921.[5] Rinunciatario was formed after legal words such as legatario;[5] its modern sense, one who gives up rights or advantages too easily, is from 1919.[5] In politics rinunciare all'incarico is to decline the mandate to form a government.[7][10]

Timeline

  • First half of the 13th century – The verb appears in a translation of Rainerio da Perugia.[5]
  • 1268 – Date given by Zingarelli.[9]
  • Before 1321 – Dante writes rinonciare.[5]
  • Before 1498 – Rinunzia appears in Vespasiano da Bisticci.[5]
  • 1673 – Rinunziatario is used as a legal term.[5]
  • Before 1677 – The sense “to refrain from doing” is recorded.[5]
  • 1919 – Rinunciatario takes its modern sense.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To renounce, give up voluntarily a possession, right or office (with a): Ha rinunciato alla sua parte della casa.[7][2][3]
  2. To give up, forgo doing something or a plan or pleasure: Abbiamo rinunciato a partire per il mare.[7][2][3]
  3. (absolute) To give up: Era troppo difficile e alla fine ho rinunciato.[7][3][10]
  4. (religion) rinunciare al mondo, to give up worldly goods for the spiritual life.[7][10]
  5. (literary, transitive) To refuse, decline.[2][9][10]
  6. (obsolete) To announce publicly, report.[7][2][3]

Word family

  • rinuncia
  • rinunzia
  • rinunciatario
  • rinunciabile
  • rinunciatore

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana