sanare

Forms

sanare (first-person singular present sàno, first-person singular past historic sanài, past participle sanàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sānāre (“to cure, repair”), formed from sānus (“healthy, whole”), the source of sano.^[2][1][3][4] The same Latin verb gave Occitan sanar, Catalan sanar, Spanish sanar, Portuguese sarar and French sener “to castrate”.^[2][5] The castration sense is found in many Romance dialects, in Abruzzo, Lombardy, Piedmont, the Engadine, Berry and Catalan territory.^[5]

The origin of Latin sānus is uncertain.^[6] De Vaan calls the reconstruction Proto-Indo-European *seh₂-no- purely mechanical, and suggests a root *seh₂- (“to tie”), with the sense “in place, in order”, or the root of Latin satis (“enough”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, with the sense “to make healthy, cure”.^[7] Zingarelli and GRADIT date it to before 1257 and before 1294, and Nocentini to the 14th century.^[8][9][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb was used above all of the doctor's work: Brunetto Latini writes that the aim of the doctor is sanare lo ’nfermo (“to heal the sick man”).^[10] Dante extended it to the sun, O Sol che sani ogni vista turbata (“O sun that heals every troubled sight”), and Petrarch used it intransitively of a wound that does not heal.^[11][9]

The verb was also used of land, of wine and of oil: to improve poor soil, to correct spoiled wine, to cure rancid oil.^[11] From before 1555, in Giambullari, it also meant to set a difficult or irregular situation right.^[7] In 1848 Ugolini noted the office use sanare un atto, to approve an irregular act, which the Crusca dictionary did not record; the noun sanatoria belongs to it.^[7][2]

The reflexive sanarsi, “to heal”, especially in a figurative sense, is recorded in Zingarelli in 1922.^[7] The sense “to castrate” survives regionally of animals.^[12][8] Carlo Levi wrote that sows were castrated so that they would grow fatter.^[12]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses sanare for healing.^[7]
• Before 1555 – Giambullari uses it for setting an irregular situation right.^[7]
• 1745 – The adjective sanatorio is recorded.^[2]
• 1848 – Ugolini notes sanare un atto in office language.^[7]
• 1922 – The reflexive sanarsi appears in Zingarelli.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To heal, cure (guarire): to make a sick person well, or close a wound: Il medico sanò la ferita in pochi giorni.^{[9][3][13][14]}
2. (figurative) To ease a moral or spiritual pain: Solo gli anni sanano certi lutti.^[9][3][14]
3. (by extension) To reclaim land (bonificare), to make a marshy or unhealthy area fit to live in and farm.^[9][3][14]
4. To remedy a difficult situation or a social ill; to bring a firm or a budget back to normal, to balance it: sanare i conti di un’azienda.^{[9][3][8][12]}
5. (law, administration) To validate an irregular act, or grant an amnesty (sanatoria) for an offence or an irregularity.^{[9][13][8][12]}
6. (archaic, regional) To castrate an animal.^{[9][8][12][15]}
7. (intransitive and pronominal, sanarsi) To heal, to get well; figuratively, to return to normal: Il taglio si sanò presto.^[8][14][15]

Word family

• sanabile
• insanabile
• sanatorio
• sanatoria
• risanare
• risanamento
• sanamento
• sanativo
• sanatore
• sanatura
• sanazione

Related words

• sano
• Latin sānus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 487
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli