ruggito

Forms

ruggito m (plural ruggiti)^[1] Old Italian also wrote rugito and Old Italian rugitu.^[2] Tommaseo gives the variants rugghio and the obsolete ruggio.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rugītus (“a roaring”), the action noun of rūgiō (“to roar”).^[4][5][1] Zingarelli, Treccani, Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli label the Latin noun Late Latin.^[6][7][8][9] Devoto took the Italian form as the Latin noun crossed with the verb ruggire,^[10] and GRADIT lists the noun under the past participle of that verb.^[11]

The Latin noun is formed from the verb with the suffix -tus.^[1] The verb was used above all, though not only, of lions.^[4] Nocentini calls it imitative, built on a sound ⟨ru-⟩ for the noise from an animal's throat that recurs in several Indo-European verb roots.^[5] De Vaan sets it beside Ancient Greek ὠρυγή (ōrugḗ, “noise, roaring”) and ἐρεύγομαι (ereúgomai, “to roar”) and traces it to a root Proto-Indo-European *(H)ru- (“to roar”), extended by different consonants in different branches.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Cavalca's Lives of the Hermits (1321–1330), for the hoarse, loud cry of the lion.^[2] DELI gives an earlier example from Giordano da Pisa (before 1311), Diede il nitrito a' cavalli, il muggito a' tori, il ruggito a' leoni (“He gave the neigh to horses, the bellow to bulls, the roar to lions”), but notes that it may have been made up by Redi; the next record is then a 14th-century translation of Gregory the Great.^[4][13]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the noun for any thunderous sound and, in medicine, for a loud gurgling of the bowels, a borborygmus.^[2] That sense is now obsolete.^[6][9]

The figurative senses are dated by DELI: a din or crash of things before 1530 (Sannazaro) and a furious or indignant howl of a person before 1625 (Marino).^[4] Guarini played on the lion's roar as a lover's sigh: Rugge il leone al bosco, / né quel ruggito è d'ira: / così d'amor sospira (“The lion roars in the wood, and that roar is not of anger: so he sighs with love”).^[14] Today the word names the cry of the lion and other big cats, a cry of rage, and the roar of wind, sea and storm.^[11][15][8]

A rare adjective ruggito, the past participle of ruggire, describes weeping uttered in hoarse, inarticulate sounds.^[16]

Timeline

• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses ruggito of lions, in an example DELI calls doubtful.^[4]
• 1321–1330 – Cavalca's Lives of the Hermits has the word.^[2]
• Before 1530 – Sannazaro uses it for a din or crash.^[4]
• Before 1625 – Marino uses it for a furious human cry.^[4]
• 1640 – Oudin's dictionary records the sense “act of roaring”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. roar: the deep, hoarse cry of the lion and other big cats: Nella notte si sentì il ruggito di una leonessa.^[11][15][8]
2. (figurative) A furious howl or cry of rage.^[11][15][6]
3. (figurative) The loud roar of wind, sea or storm.^[11][15][8]
4. (obsolete) A borborygmus, a rumbling of the bowels.^[6][9][2]

Related words

• ruggire
• Latin rugitus

Usage notes

GRADIT also treats ruggito as the past participle of ruggire.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 224
15. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 225