tentennare

Forms

tentennare (first-person singular present tenténno, first-person singular past historic tentennài, past participle tentennàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tintinnāre (“to ring, jingle”), an onomatopoeic verb.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is a reduplicated form of tinniō (“to ring”), of imitative origin.^[3][5][6]

The old sense “to ring” survives in the dialects: Neapolitan ndennare, Sicilian ntinnu (“toll, sound”) and Old French tantiner.^[7][8][1] A Vulgar Latin *tintinnicare lies behind Venetian tentinagàr of Padua and Romagnol tintinaghè (“to be slow to act or decide”).^[7]

DELI sees “to swing” as the link between ringing and wobbling.^[2] Nocentini explains it as a metaphor from sound to sight and touch, in objects such as bells whose ringing comes from swinging.^[3] Tommaseo reports an older view that took it for a frequentative of tentare.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the transitive sense “to move to and fro, shake”, in Il Fiore (1280–1310).^[2][4] Zingarelli dates the word 1287.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Pataffio (15th century) already uses the verb figuratively, and Buonarroti the Younger (1619) uses it of something unsteady on its base.^[2] The sense “to waver, be undecided” is recorded before 1565 in Varchi, who lists e' tentenna among the phrases said of a person who hesitates over a task for want of a better reward.^[2]

From the old phrase stare in tentenna, said of an object about to fall (Firenzuola, 1518–1525), came tentenna, a hesitant person, sometimes treated as a name (signor Tentenna).^[2] Derivatives followed: tentennio (c. 1535), tentennamento (1612) and tentennante (1619).^[2]

Timeline

• 1280–1310 – Il Fiore uses the verb for shaking something.^[2]
• 1400s – The Pataffio uses it figuratively.^[2]
• 1518–1525 – Firenzuola has stare in tentenna.^[2]
• Before 1565 – Varchi records the sense “to hesitate”.^[2]
• 1612 – Tentennamento is in the first Crusca dictionary.^[2]
• 1619 – Buonarroti the Younger uses the verb for something unsteady.^[2]
• 1879 – Tommaseo–Bellini records tentenna “waverer”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To be unsteady, wobble: la sedia tentenna su una gamba, or of a tooth, to be loose.^[4][10][6]
2. (intransitive) To totter, walk unsteadily.^[4][10][11]
3. (intransitive, figurative) To hesitate, waver between choices: tentenna ancora tra le due offerte.^[4][10][12]
4. (transitive) To move to and fro, shake gently: tentennare il capo, to shake one's head in doubt or refusal.^[4][10][6]

Word family

• tentenna
• tentennamento
• tentennante
• tentennio
• tentennatore
• tentennone

Related words

• tintinnare
• tinnire
• Latin tintinnō

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 n 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3753
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse