Etymologically
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tornare

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Pronunciation

  • /torˈna.re/[1]

Forms

tornare (first-person singular present tórno, first-person singular past historic tornài, past participle tornàto, auxiliary (intransitive) èssere or (transitive) avére)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tornō (“to turn on a lathe”), from tornus (“lathe”).[2][3][4] The Latin noun was borrowed from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “compass; lathe”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, twist”),[1][5] and DELI sees the verb as a Latin adaptation of τορνεύω (tornéuō, “to turn on a lathe”).[2] From “to turn on the lathe” the verb came to mean “to turn”, and then “to come back to the same place”, and it took over much of the ground of volvō (“to roll, turn”).[2][3][6]

The word is panromance: French tourner, Occitan tornar, Catalan tornar, Spanish tornar, Portuguese tornar, Sardinian torrar and Romanian turna (“to pour”).[3][7] Latin passed it also to Old English tyrnan.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Testimonianze di Travale of 1158, in the sense “to go again”.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the verb for returning to where one set out, “vegno del loco ove tornar disio” (I come from the place where I long to return, Inferno 2), and transitively, in a literary use, for turning something.[2][6] Boccaccio has the senses “to come back from a place” and “to become again”, and Galileo, before 1642, “to come out right, to add up”, as in i conti tornano.[2] The noun tornaconto “self-interest” (1853, Giusti) comes from the phrase il conto torna.[2][3]

Some phrases come from French: tornare alla carica translates revenir à la charge, and tornante “hairpin bend” (1898) adapts French tournant.[2] In Tuscany tornare also means “to move into” a house.[9]

Timeline

  • 1158 – Tornare “to go again” in the Testimonianze di Travale.[2][3]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for returning to one's starting point.[2]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “to become again”.[2]
  • Before 1642 – Galileo uses it for “to add up”.[2]
  • 1853 – Tornaconto in Giuseppe Giusti.[2]
  • 1898 – Tornante “hairpin bend” in Edmondo De Amicis.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive, auxiliary essere) To return, to go or come back to where one started: torno a casa alle sei.[4][10][11]
  2. To come back from a place: è appena tornata dal mare.[4][12]
  3. To go again to a place where one has been: l'estate prossima torneremo in Sicilia.[4][10]
  4. To come back to a subject or a decision: tornare sull'argomento, tornare sui propri passi.[4][12]
  5. Of things, to reappear, to happen again: è tornato il freddo.[4][11]
  6. With a and an infinitive, to do something again: dopo anni è tornato a dipingere.[10][1]
  7. To become again: il mare è tornato calmo.[2][1]
  8. Of accounts or reasoning, to add up, to be right: qualcosa non torna.[11][1]
  9. (transitive, literary) To give back; to turn.[1][2]

Word family

  • ritornare
  • tornaconto
  • tornata
  • torno
  • tornello
  • attorno
  • intorno
  • dintorno
  • contorno
  • contornare
  • stornare
  • frastornare

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include tornare a galla (to resurface), tornare in sé (to come to one's senses), tornare a bomba (to get back to the point) and tornare indietro (to go back, to back out).[4][12][13] The colloquial tornarsene means to go back home: me ne torno in albergo.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 d e f 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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3830
  9. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, 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. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana