verdeggiare

Forms

verdeggiare (first-person singular present verdéggio, first-person singular past historic verdeggiài, past participle verdeggiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian verde (“green”) + -eggiare.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary instead traces it to Vulgar Latin *viridizāre, itself from Latin viridis (“green”) with the verb suffix -izāre, and notes that it can also be read as the Italian derivative.^[1] Battisti and Alessio compare French verdoyer, recorded from the 12th century.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the verb to 1342.^[7] The first dated text that DELI and GRADIT give is Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–1353), where hills and plains are seen growing green: veggionvisi verdeggiare i colli e le pianure (“one sees the hills and plains turn green there”).^[8][2][9]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb described a landscape that is green with vegetation, and Petrarch wrote of the sun that makes the hills grow green (quando il sol fa verdeggiare i poggi).^[8][4][10] Boiardo's meadow “where spring always flowered” lay green beneath the trees (Di sotto a questi verdeggiava un prato).^[9][10] Old forms were verdegiare and verdemare.^[9]

The plain sense “to be or look green” is dated by DELI only to G. Soderini, before 1597.^[8] In the 18th century Chiabrera used it figuratively and as a transitive verb, “to make green”.^[6] Devoto–Oli and Treccani note that its compound tenses are rare.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1342 – Zingarelli's date for verdeggiare.^[7]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio writes of hills and plains turning green.^[8][2]
• 14th century – Verdeggiante appears in a vernacular Ovid and verdeggiamento in a book of sermons.^[6]
• Before 1597 – G. Soderini uses it for “to be or look green”.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To be or look green and lush: in aprile i pendii verdeggiano di grano.^{[2][11][7][4]}
2. (intransitive) To turn green, covering itself with vegetation.^[2][7][12]
3. (intransitive, uncommon) To be greenish, take on a green tint: al tramonto il lago verdeggiava.^{[2][11][3][7]}
4. (intransitive, figurative, obsolete) To be strong and vigorous.^[2][7]
5. (transitive, rare) To make green or make look green.^[2][6]

Word family

• verdeggiante
• verdeggiamento
• riverdeggiare

Related words

• verde
• verdura
• rinverdire
• Latin viridis

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4018
7. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 766
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli