sognare

Forms

sognare (first-person singular present sógno, first-person singular past historic sognài, past participle sognàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin somniō (“to dream”), formed from somnium (“dream”), itself from somnus (“sleep”).^[2][3][4][5] The Italian verb is therefore a sister of the noun sogno rather than a derivative of it.^[2][3][1]

DEI calls the verb common to western Romance: French songer, Occitan somnhar, Catalan somiar, Spanish soñar and Portuguese sonhar, and Sardinian sonniare in Logudorese.^[6][7][8] The word for sleep goes back to Proto-Indo-European *swépnos (“sleep”), through Proto-Italic *swepnos.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, in the sense “to see, or think one sees, while asleep”.^[2][4] Before 1303 Onesto da Bologna uses it for imagining something wholly unexpected.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian wrote the verb in many ways: sogniare, sompniare, sonniare, sugnare and summiare are among them.^[9] Dante compares himself to a man who dreams of his own harm and, dreaming, wishes he were dreaming (che suo dannaggio sogna, / che sognando desidera sognare).^[9][10] He and other early writers also used the verb for believing falsely or imagining.^[10]

The sense “to long for” is recorded before 1492, in Bellincioni.^[2] Sognare con gli occhi aperti, to daydream, is in Gravina in 1708; today it is sognare a occhi aperti.^[2][4] Boccaccio has the proverb chi mal ti vuole, mal ti sogna, “whoever wishes you ill dreams ill of you”.^[10] In the modern colloquial language the pronominal sognarsi is used with intensive force, and non ti sognare di… means “don't even think of…”.^[5][11]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Novellino has sognare “to dream”.^[2]
• Before 1303 – Onesto da Bologna uses it for imagining the unexpected.^[2]
• 14th century – Sognatore and trasognare are recorded.^[3]
• Before 1492 – Bellincioni uses it in the sense “to long for”.^[2]
• 1708 – Gravina writes sognare con gli occhi aperti.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dream of, to see in a dream: Stanotte ho sognato il mare.^[4][5][11]
2. (figurative) To long for, to yearn for: Sogna una casa in montagna.^[4][12][11]
3. (colloquial) To imagine things that are not real, or to expect the unexpected, especially in questions and negative sentences: Chi l’avrebbe mai sognato?^[4][5][11]
4. (intransitive) To have dreams: Non sogno quasi mai.^[4][11][13]
5. (intransitive) To daydream, to let one's fancy wander.^[12][11]
6. (pronominal, sognarsi) To dream of, with intensive force, and to dare, in negative sentences: Non ti sognare di toccarla!^[5][11][12]

Word family

• sognatore
• sognante
• trasognare
• sognabile
• risognare

Related words

• sogno
• sonno
• Latin somnium

Usage notes

Common phrases are sognare a occhi aperti (to daydream), credere di sognare (to be unable to believe one's eyes) and me lo sono sognato? (did I dream it?), said ironically to insist that something really happened.^[4][11][13]

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 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3530
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana