rodere

Forms

rodere (first-person singular present ródo, first-person singular past historic rósi, past participle róso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rōdō (“to gnaw, erode”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is recorded throughout antiquity, from Lucretius, and its Romance outcomes point to a Proto-Romance verb meaning “to wear away by gnawing”.^[5][6] The past participle roso continues Latin rōsus.^[2]

The word is found in every Romance branch except Dalmatian, Friulian, Ladin and Franco-Provençal: Old French roure, Occitan roire, Spanish roer, Portuguese roer and Romanian roade.^[5][3][7]

The further origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.^[6][2] De Vaan traces it either to Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- (“to gnaw, scrape”), connected with a Sanskrit verb meaning “to dig, scratch”, or to *wreh₃d-, the root of the Germanic family of Old English wrōtan (“to dig, root”).^[6][1] Nocentini links it with rādō (“to scrape”), the source of radere.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni's Della miseria dell'uomo (before 1292), with the sense “to crumble, gnaw with the teeth”: hell holds vermini that sempre rodono e mordono (“worms that always gnaw and bite”).^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

By 1300–1313 Dante used the verb for wearing away or destroying little by little, also figuratively, and the reflexive rodersi “to torment oneself” is found before 1342 in Domenico Cavalca;^[2] Dante has it as a reciprocal (1313–1319).^[2] The humorous sense “to eat” is in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century: dategli bene da rodere, “give him plenty to gnaw”.^[2][10]

Old and dialect forms include roddere, rodire and roere.^[9] In modern use the verb is said of acids, rust and running water that eat away a surface, and of feelings that torment a person;^[4][11][12] rodersi il fegato means to eat one's heart out with rage.^[4][11][12] In colloquial central Italian it is also intransitive, “to rankle”: mi rode, “it galls me”.^[11][13]

The agent noun roditore (before 1311) became in 1907 the zoological name of the rodents.^[2]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses rodere “to gnaw”.^[2][4]
• End of the 13th century – The Novellino uses it humorously for “to eat”.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “to wear away little by little”.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses rodersi “to torment oneself”.^[2]
• About 1350 – Rodimento appears in the translation of Crescenzi.^[2]
• 1907 – Roditori is used for the order of rodents.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To gnaw, wear down with the teeth (of animals); also of insects that eat away wood or cloth: Il cane rode un osso.^[4][11][14]
2. (transitive, humorous) To eat in small bites, to nibble.^[4][11][15]
3. (transitive) To wear away, corrode, erode little by little: Il mare rode la scogliera.^[4][11][13]
4. (transitive, figurative) To torment, afflict (of a feeling or thought): Lo rode la gelosia.^[4][15][13]
5. (intransitive, colloquial) To rankle, cause resentment: gli rode di essere rimasto fuori.^[4][11][14]
6. (reflexive) rodersi: to torment oneself, be consumed (with envy, anger); rodersi il fegato, to fret with rage.^[11][14][13]

Word family

• roso
• roditore
• rodimento
• roditura
• rodente
• rosura

Related words

• rodibile
• rosicare
• rosicchiare
• corrodere
• erodere
• rostro
• radere
• Latin rodo

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse