sorridere

Forms

sorridere (first-person singular present sorrìdo, first-person singular past historic sorrìsi, past participle sorrìso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *subrīdĕre, the classical Latin subrīdeō (“to smile”) moved from the second conjugation to the third, as ridere was.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under; slightly”) and rīdeō (“to laugh”), the prefix having the sense “a little”.^[2][5][6] DEI and Nocentini start from an assimilated form *surrīdĕre,^[3][7][8] and Prati thought the word may have come into Italian through the written language.^[9]

The same verb is Romansh sorrir, Spanish sonreír and Portuguese sorrir;^[8][7][3] Old French souzrire and modern French sourire were formed with a different prefix.^[8][7] De Vaan finds no good Indo-European source for the Latin verb, and rejects the old comparison with Sanskrit व्रीडते (vrīḍate, “is ashamed”).^[10][1]

The sense “to appeal to, to please” copies French sourire, which had it from 1798.^[2][7] Tommaseo still objected in 1874 that writers were translating the French phrase cela me sourit (“that appeals to me”) too literally.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Sicilian poet Stefano Protonotaro, in the middle of the 13th century, in the sense “to laugh lightly, with a slight movement of the mouth and eyes”.^[2][4] His lady, he says, raised her eyes and smiled and so put him to death, like the basilisk (“isò gli occhi e sorrise, / sì c'à morte mi mise”).^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to love poetry from the start: in the Vita nuova Dante says that how his lady looks when she smiles a little cannot be spoken or held in the mind (“Quel ch'ella par quando un poco sorride, / non si pò dicer né tenere a mente”).^[5] Francesco da Buti, commenting on Dante, explained that smiling is laughing in moderation and so belongs to the wise.^[11] The noun sorriso is recorded before 1321, in Dante, and the participle sorridente before 1406.^[2]

Figurative uses came later: fortune or life “smiles” on someone in Vincenzo Monti (before 1828), and the sun smiles on the hills in Leopardi.^[2][4] The sense “to appeal to someone” is first recorded before 1836.^[2] In literary Italian the verb can also be transitive, “to say with a smile”, as in Pascoli.^[4][12][6]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – Stefano Protonotaro uses sorrise “smiled”.^[2][5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the noun sorriso.^[2]
• Before 1828 – Vincenzo Monti uses the verb for things that look favourable.^[2]
• Before 1836 – The sense “to please, to appeal to” is recorded, after French sourire.^[2]
• 1874 – Tommaseo criticises the French-style sense “to appeal to”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To smile: to laugh lightly, with the lips only, to show pleasure, kindness, agreement or irony: Quando l'ha vista entrare ha sorriso.^[4][13][6]
2. (figurative) To look favourable, to favour someone (of luck, life and similar): La sorte non gli ha mai sorriso.^[4][13][14]
3. (figurative) To appeal to, to please, often in the negative: Lavorare la domenica non mi sorride.^[4][13][12]
4. (figurative, literary) To shine brightly and cheerfully (of the sun, a landscape).^[4][13][14]
5. (literary, transitive) To say with a smile.^[4][12][6]
6. (reciprocal, as sorridersi) To exchange smiles.^[13][6][12]

Word family

• sorriso
• sorridente
• risorridere

Related words

• arridere
• ridere
• Latin subrideo
• French sourire

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 k l m 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 i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3560
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 931
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, 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. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana