Etymologically
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ritornare

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Pronunciation

  • /ri.torˈna.re/[1]

Forms

ritornare (first-person singular present ritórno, first-person singular past historic ritornài, past participle ritornàto, auxiliary (intransitive) èssere or (transitive) avére)[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian retornare, Old Italian aritornare, Old Italian retronare and Old Italian ratronare.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian ri- (“again”) + tornare (“to return”), with the prefix of repetition.[3][4][5][6] Nocentini treats French retourner and Spanish retornar as parallel formations made independently in each language;[4][1] Wiktionary derives the Italian verb from a Latin retornō instead.[4][1] The noun ritorno is formed from the verb, and ritornello is the diminutive of that noun.[3]

The simple verb tornare continues Latin tornō (“to turn on a lathe”), from tornus (“lathe”), itself from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “lathe; compasses”); the Latin verb took over much of the meaning of volvō (“to turn, roll”), and “to turn” became “to come back” in the Romance languages.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest record is the Ritmo lucchese, of the early 13th century, with the sense “to come again to the place one had left”, and the GDLI quotes the passage, where prisoners are sworn to go back to the Christians.[3][2] Nocentini and GRADIT date the verb to the end of the 13th century.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to become again” is found in Dante (1300–1313), and in the 14th century the literary sense “to turn out, to result”, as in ritornare in danno “to turn to someone's harm”.[3][7] Old Italian also used the verb transitively for “to bring back, restore to a former state”, which is now literary or obsolete.[7][8]

The sense “to reappear, to come round again”, of the weather, an illness or a feast, is recorded by Tommaseo in 1872.[3] In southern Italy the verb is also used transitively for “to give back”.[7][8][1] The noun ritorno appears before 1294 in Brunetto Latini and in Dante, and ritornello, a recurring line of verse, is in the Latin of Francesco da Barberino in 1314 and in Italian by the 18th century.[3]

Timeline

  • Early 13th century – The Ritmo lucchese has ritornare.[3]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses ritorno in a figurative sense.[3]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses the verb for “to become again”.[3]
  • 1314 – Ritornello appears in Francesco da Barberino's Latin.[3]
  • Before 1590 – Gioseffo Zarlino uses ritornello for a musical repeat.[3]
  • 1872 – Tommaseo records the sense “to reappear”.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive) To return, go or come back to the place one left or where one lives: Siamo ritornati a casa a mezzanotte.[5][9][10]
  2. (intransitive) To go back to someone, also to resume a relationship: Dopo un anno è ritornata con lui.[5][9]
  3. (intransitive) To take up an activity, a subject or a memory again: ritornare a studiare, ritornare su una decisione.[5][9][10]
  4. (intransitive) To become again: Dopo la vacanza è ritornato tranquillo.[5][7][8]
  5. (intransitive) Of a phenomenon or event, to come back, recur: A novembre è ritornata la nebbia.[5][10][7]
  6. (transitive, regional) To give back something: Mi ha ritornato il libro.[10][8][7]

Word family

Usage notes

Ritornare in sé means to come round, regain consciousness or one's senses.[5][7][11] The verb takes essere when intransitive and avere when transitive.[1][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 j k l m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  9. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  11. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli