sanguinare

Forms

sanguinare (first-person singular present sànguino, first-person singular past historic sanguinài, past participle sanguinàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Dialect and old forms include sangonare, sanguignare and scianguinare.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sanguinō (“to bleed”), from sanguis (“blood”).^[4][5][6][1] GRADIT, Sabatini–Coletti and Zingarelli call the Latin verb Late Latin; it meant “to bleed” and also “to stain with blood”, and Meyer-Lübke glosses it “to let blood”.^[6][7][8][9] The word is found across Romance: Romanian sângera, Sardinian insambenare, French saigner, Occitan saunar and Spanish sangrar.^[4][5][9] The French verb was borrowed as Old Italian segnare (“to bleed (a patient)”).^[5][9][10]

The first part of the Latin noun may go back to the oblique stem of Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”); the element ⟨-guen⟩ or ⟨-guin⟩ is less certain.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Laude cortonesi of about 1260, in the sense “to shed blood”: the Virgin sees the right hand of Christ on the cross sanguinare, and the left.^[12][2] The DEI dates it to 1329 and Zingarelli to 1319.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the verb transitively, sanguinando il piano (“staining the ground with blood”), a use that stays literary and rare.^[6][13][14] The figurative sense “to cause deep pain” is recorded before 1863 in G. P. Vieusseux, and a heart that sanguina is one in anguish.^[12][6][8] Tuscan proverbs compare a bleeding person to an Ecce homo, and Tommaseo notes the old form sanguignare in Machiavelli.^[3]

Meat that is underdone is said to sanguinare.^[8][7][15] The present participle sanguinante is used as an adjective from the 17th century.^[4]

Timeline

• About 1260 – The Laude cortonesi use sanguinare “to bleed”.^[12]
• 1319 – Zingarelli's date for the word.^[8]
• 1329 – The DEI's date, from a treatise on farriery.^[5]
• 17th century – sanguinante is recorded.^[4]
• Before 1863 – G. P. Vieusseux uses the sense “to cause deep pain”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of a person or part of the body, to bleed, to lose blood: Dopo la caduta gli sanguinava il ginocchio.^[6][13][1]
2. (intransitive) Of a wound or cut, to give out blood: Il taglio ha smesso di sanguinare.^[6][13]
3. (intransitive) Of meat, to be underdone.^[8][7][15]
4. (intransitive, figurative) To suffer deeply: Le sanguina il cuore quando pensa al figlio lontano.^[6][8][1]
5. (intransitive, figurative) To go on causing pain: Quel tradimento sanguina ancora.^[6][13][15]
6. (transitive, literary, rare) To stain with blood.^[6][13][1]

Word family

• sanguinante
• sanguinamento
• insanguinare

Related words

• sangue
• Latin sanguis
• French saigner

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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3332
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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana