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rovinare

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word rovinare

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
before 1292, Bono Giamboni
Ultimate origin
Latin ruō

Pronunciation

  • /ro.viˈna.re/[1]

Forms

rovinare (first-person singular present rovìno, first-person singular past historic rovinài, past participle rovinàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)[1] Older forms are ruvinare and ruinare, the second still literary.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Italian rovina (“collapse, ruin”) + -are.[2][5][6][7][4] Wiktionary takes it instead from Latin ruīnō (“to overthrow; to fall”), which Meyer-Lübke and Körting give as the source of the Italian, Milanese and other dialect verbs and of French ruiner, Spanish ruinar and Portuguese ruinar.[1][8][9]

The noun is Latin ruīna (“fall, collapse; ruins”), from ruō (“to rush down, fall headlong”), a verb with no sure relatives outside Latin.[2][5] The ⟨v⟩ of “rovina” was inserted to break the hiatus of “ruina”, as in “Genova” and “vedova”.[2][5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Before 1292 Bono Giamboni has ruvinare and ruinare in the sense “to collapse with force and noise”, said of walls and buildings.[2][7] Giovanni Villani writes (before 1348) that after the siege “rovinarono delle mura di Palermo più di CCC braccia” (“more than three hundred braccia of the walls of Palermo collapsed”).[7][2]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the verb of a person plunging down: “Mentre ch'i' rovinava in basso loco” (“while I was rushing down to a low place”, Inferno 1).[2][6][3] The transitive sense “to bring down, demolish” is in Giordano da Pisa (before 1311), the figurative “to bring to ruin or poverty” in Davanzati (before 1600), the reflexive “to suffer serious harm” in 1582, and “to spoil, damage” in D'Alberti's dictionary of 1804.[2]

The proverb l'acqua cheta rovina i ponti (“still water brings down bridges”) warns that quiet, meek-seeming people can be dangerous.[3] Sabatini–Coletti mark the transitive sense “to demolish” as uncommon.[4]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses ruvinare and ruinare.[2]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses it of a person plunging down.[2]
  • Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses the transitive “to demolish”.[2]
  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses the form rovinare.[2]
  • 1582 – The reflexive “to suffer serious harm” is recorded.[2]
  • Before 1600 – Davanzati uses it for “to bring to ruin”.[2]
  • 1804 – D'Alberti records “to spoil, damage”.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To spoil, damage: La grandine ha rovinato tutta la vendemmia.[6][4][3]
  2. To harm someone's health or a part of the body.[6]
  3. (figurative) To ruin morally, to compromise a reputation or a career.[6][4]
  4. (figurative) To reduce to poverty, to bankrupt: Il gioco d'azzardo lo ha rovinato.[6][4]
  5. To knock down, demolish.[6][4]
  6. (intransitive, with essere) Of a building, to collapse: Il vecchio campanile è rovinato durante la notte.[6][3][4]
  7. (intransitive) To fall violently from above, to crash down; of a person, to fall heavily.[6][3][4]
  8. (pronominal, rovinarsi) To ruin oneself; of things, to get spoiled.[4]

Word family

  • rovinio
  • rovinamento
  • rovinatore
  • rovinevole
  • rovina
  • rovinoso
  • Latin ruīna
  • French ruiner

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  8. ^ 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. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3290
Cite this entry

“Rovinare.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/rovinare. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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