starnutire

Forms

starnutire (first-person singular present starnutìsco, first-person singular past historic starnutìi, past participle starnutìto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian starnutare, moved into the verbs in ⟨-ire⟩.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The GDLI calls it a variant of starnutare with a change of conjugation, and Meyer-Lübke lists it among the Romance forms that made the same change.^[6][7] GRADIT takes it straight from the Latin verb with a change of conjugation, and Devoto–Oli derives it from starnuto.^[8][9]

Starnutare is from Latin sternūtāre (“to sneeze”), a frequentative of sternuō (“to sneeze”).^[10][11][1] DELI notes that sternutāre is not recorded before Petronius but probably existed earlier, since Cicero has sternutamentum.^[10] The Latin verb is panromance: French éternuer, Occitan estornudar, Catalan estornudar, Spanish estornudar, Sardinian isturridare and Romanian strănuta.^[11][7]

sternuō goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(p)st(e)rnu- (“to sneeze”), related to Ancient Greek πτάρνυμαι (ptárnumai), Welsh trew (“sneeze”) and Middle Irish sreod.^[12][11][1] De Vaan suggests that imitation of the sound may have reshaped all of these words, but thinks the shared ⟨-r-⟩ makes an inherited word likely.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Zucchero Bencivenni's Santà of 1310: the iris fa starnutire molta superfluità e purgale per lo naso (makes one sneeze out much superfluous matter and purges it through the nose).^[10][13][6]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has not changed since then.^[13][8] In Boccaccio's Decameron the sneezes of a hidden man give him away: starnutendo ancora la terza volta e la quarta e la quinta (sneezing again a third, a fourth and a fifth time).^[6] Old Italian also used the infinitive as a noun, and sneezing was observed for divination.^[13]

Later writers used the variants stranutire (Contile) and sternutire (Nievo).^[6]

Timeline

• 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses starnutire.^[10][13]
• c. 1350 – Starnutare and the noun starnuto appear in the Italian Crescenzi.^[10]
• 1353 – Zingarelli's date for the word.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To sneeze, once or several times: col raffreddore starnutisco tutto il giorno.^[8][9][3][1]

Word family

• ristarnutire
• starnutamento

Related words

• starnuto
• starnutare
• Latin sternuō

Usage notes

Starnutire takes avere and inserts -isc- in the present (starnutisco).^[9][3][2] Less common variants are sternutire, starnutare and sternutare, and popular ones stranutire and stranutare.^[9][3][14] Sabatini–Coletti mentions the custom of saying Salute! to someone who sneezes.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ 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, p. 20, 92
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana