Etymologically
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urlare

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Pronunciation

Forms

urlare (first-person singular present ùrlo, first-person singular past historic urlài, past participle urlàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old Italian also had the shortened infinitive urlar, and the TLIO lists a form urulanu.[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ululāre (“to howl”), through a Vulgar Latin *urulāre in which the first ⟨l⟩ became ⟨r⟩ by dissimilation.[3][4][5][2] The unstressed vowel then dropped, as Devoto explains.[6] The dissimilated form survives in Sardinian urulare.[3][4][7] Theodor Braune proposed a link with Germanic words in 1894, but Meyer-Lübke rejected it and accounted for the Romance variants of the Latin verb.[3][8]

The other Romance outcomes are French hurler, Romanian urla, Friulian urlâ and Catalan udolar, the last from a form with ⟨d⟩.[4][7][9] Meyer-Lübke explains the Romance ⟨u-⟩ in place of the Latin ⟨ŭ-⟩ by the imitation of the sound.[7] The Latin verb is itself imitative, of a sound like ⟨u⟩; de Vaan holds that an older Proto-Indo-European *ul- or Proto-Indo-European *ulul- cannot be proven.[10][1] Italian also has ululare, the learned form of the same Latin verb.[11][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the letters of Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294.[2] In Old Italian the verb was still above all the cry of the wolf or the dog: commenting on Dante, Boccaccio wrote “Urlar: this is proper to wolves, although dogs also often howl.”[3][12]

Semantic evolution

Dante used it of the damned, whom the rain makes “howl like dogs” (Urlar li fa la pioggia come cani), and DELI dates the human sense, “to scream”, to the Commedia of 1300–1313.[12][3] In the 16th century Varchi still held that the verb belonged to wolves rather than to people.[3][13] Old Italian also used the infinitive as a noun, “howling”, and of other animals' cries.[2]

The sense “to raise one's voice in an argument or a rebuke” and the transitive use “to shout (something)” are recorded in Tommaseo–Bellini in 1879.[3] Modern Italian also uses the verb of sirens and other loud sounds and of singing at the top of one's voice.[11][14] The derivative urlatore named in 1959 a pop singer who sang at full voice.[3]

Timeline

  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses urlare.[2]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses it of people screaming.[3]
  • 1362–1364 – Boccaccio uses the noun urlo for an animal's howl.[3]
  • Before 1375 – Boccaccio explains urlar as the cry of wolves.[3]
  • 1879 – Tommaseo–Bellini records it for shouting in an argument.[3]
  • 1959 – Urlatore is recorded for a pop singer.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive) To scream, to yell, to give loud prolonged cries: Il bambino urlava di paura.[11][14][15]
  2. (intransitive) To speak too loudly or angrily, to shout: Abbassa la voce, non c'è motivo di urlare.[11][14][16]
  3. (intransitive) Of wolves and dogs, to howl.[11][14][1]
  4. (intransitive, figurative) Of a siren or alarm, to make a loud piercing sound.[11][14][16]
  5. (transitive) To shout (words), or to sing (a song) at the top of one's voice: Gli urlò il numero dalla finestra.[11][5][15]

Word family

  • urlo
  • urlatore
  • urlio
  • urlata
  • urlone
  • urlante

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3960
  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. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  14. ^ 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
  15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana