tuonare

Forms

tuonare (first-person singular present tuòno, first-person singular past historic tuonài, past participle tuonàto, auxiliary avére or (alternatively when impersonal) èssere)^[1] The forms without the diphthong, tonare, are less common or popular, and the old language also had tronare.^[2][3][4] The TLIO records tona, tonare, tonò beside tuona and tuonerà.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tonō (“to thunder”).^{[6][7][8][5][1]} The stressed short /o/ became the diphthong /wɔ/, which alternated with /o/ in unstressed syllables.^[6][3] The old forms of the verb therefore had no diphthong where the stress fell on the ending.^[6][3] Today the diphthong is usually kept in unstressed syllables too, except in the literary present participle tonante.^[6][9][10]

The Latin verb lives on across Romance: French tonner, Occitan tronar, Catalan tronar, Spanish tronar, Portuguese troar, Sardinian tronare, Dalmatian tonur and Romanian tuna.^[7][4][1] The /r/ of the Old Italian, Occitan and Iberian forms has been explained in several ways: Schuchardt saw in it a sound-imitating element, as in tremō (“to tremble”), and Meyer-Lübke also considered a *tronāre formed after tonitrus (“thunder”).^[4][11] DELI explains the /r/ of the old noun Old Italian truono by this Latin noun.^[6]

Tonō comes from Proto-Italic *tonaō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tenh₂- (“to thunder”), and replaced an older third-conjugation verb.^[1][12] Nocentini compares German Donner and the English word thunder.^[7] GRADIT and Treccani call the Latin word onomatopoeic.^[8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo's Composizione del mondo (1282, Aretine), where the verb refers to the noise of thunder.^[5] DELI dates the first record before 1294, in Brunetto Latini, in the literary sense “to cause thunder”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb was used both impersonally, of thunder, and with the sky or a god as subject: Dante writes parrebbe nube che squarciata tona (“it would seem a cloud that thunders as it bursts”), and Petrarch quando 'l gran Gïove tona.^[5][10][3] The TLIO already finds figurative uses: to speak loudly and emphatically, to exhort, to break out suddenly and violently, and to throw into turmoil.^[5]

DELI dates the sense “to boom, to roar” from Annibal Caro (before 1566), the impersonal construction from Francesco Serdonati (before 1602), and the sense “to inveigh” from Paolo Segneri (1671).^[6] Guns and artillery have thundered since: Leopardi has un tonar di ferree canne.^[10] Today the figurative use with contro, of an orator railing against something, is common.^[8][9][10] The proverb tanto tuonò che piovve (“it thundered so long that it rained”) is said when something long announced finally happens.^[6][9][3]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses the verb in his Composizione del mondo.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for causing thunder.^[6]
• Late 13th century – The noun tuono is recorded in the Novellino.^[6]
• Before 1527 – Machiavelli uses the participle tonante.^[6]
• Before 1566 – Annibal Caro uses it for loud booming.^[6]
• Before 1602 – Francesco Serdonati uses it impersonally.^[6]
• 1671 – Paolo Segneri uses it in the sense “to inveigh”.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (impersonal) To thunder, with the auxiliary avere or essere: Stanotte ha tuonato fino all'alba.^{[8][9][3][10][1]}
2. (literary) To produce thunder, of the sky, a cloud or a god.^{[8][9][13][3]}
3. To boom or roar like thunder, of guns or explosions: In lontananza tuonavano le batterie.^{[8][9][10][1]}
4. (figurative) Of a voice, to resound loudly.^{[8][9][10][1]}
5. (figurative) To speak loudly and vehemently, to inveigh, often with contro.^{[8][9][13][3][1]} Also transitive, to shout out words: tuonare insulti.^{[8][9][13][3][1]}

Word family

• tuono
• tonante
• frastuono
• rituonare
• tuonatore

Related words

• tonare
• Latin tono
• French tonner

Usage notes

In the impersonal sense the auxiliary is avere or essere (ha tuonato, è tuonato), otherwise avere.^[3][10][1] The proverb tanto tuonò che piovve is a fixed expression.^[9][3][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 f g h i Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli