danno Italian · revision 39060

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=late 12th century, Proverbia que dicuntur|origins=ine-pro *dh₂pnóm}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈdan.no/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''danno''' ''m'' (plural danni)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old Italian forms include ''dagno'', ''dampno'', ''damno'' and ''dano''.^(TLIO) The forms with /ɲ/ come from the plural ''dagni'', as ''agni'' beside ''anno''.^(LEI|19, 63)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|la|damnum|t=loss, damage; expense; fine]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Wiktionary)^(REW 1935) The Latin cluster ⟨-mn-⟩ became ⟨-nn-⟩ in the popular word, while learned spellings such as [[m|roa-oit|damno]] and [[m|roa-oit|dampno]] kept it.^(LEI|19, 63) DELI and the LEI note that the derivatives [[dannare]], [[dannazione]] and [[dannoso]] reached Italian by the learned route.^(DELI 1999)^(LEI|19, 63)

+

+ The Latin noun survives in all the Romance languages: [[fro|dam]], [[pro|dan]], [[ca|dany]], [[es|daño]], [[pt|dano]], [[sc|dannu]], [[ro|daună]], [[fur|dan]], and it was borrowed into Basque as [[m|eu|damu]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(LEI|19, 63)^(REW 1935) Old French built on it [[m|fro|damage]], later [[m|fr|dommage]], which came into Old Italian as [[m|roa-oit|dalmaggio]] and [[m|roa-oit|dannaggio]].^(LEI|19, 63)^(Prati 1951|362)

+

+ DELI calls the origin of the Latin word uncertain.^(DELI 1999) De Vaan reconstructs [[itc-pro|*dapnom]] and [[ine-pro|*dh₂pnóm|t=expense, investment]], and Wiktionary derives this from [[ine-pro|*deh₂p-|t=to sacrifice]], the root of [[m|la|daps|t=sacrificial meal]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) Nocentini compares [[grc|δάπτω|tr=dáptō|t=to devour]], [[grc|δαπάνη|tr=dapánē|t=expense]] and [[non|tafn|t=sacrificial animal]]; following Devoto, the word first meant an atoning offering of food, and when its sacred value faded only the economic sense of cost remained.^(Nocentini 2010)^(Devoto 1968)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLIO's first record is the Venetian ''Proverbia que dicuntur'' of the late 12th century, and its first sense is an economic loss suffered by a person or a trading company.^(TLIO) DELI dates the word to the beginning of the 13th century, from Rinaldo d'Aquino: “I do not count it as harm to love so high a flower” (''E non mi tegno a danno / amare sì alta fiore'').^(DELI 1999)^(GDLI)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Old Italian used the word for financial loss, for the dead and the destruction of war, for harm to health, for the devastation of land by weather, men or beasts, and for injury to a city or a people.^(TLIO) It also meant moral injury, grief or shame, and in religious language eternal punishment: ''danno eterno'' is damnation.^(TLIO)^(GRADIT 2003) Boccaccio left Calandrino ''col danno e colle beffe'', both robbed and mocked, a phrase still in use.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ The law gave the word its modern technical senses: the injury caused by an unlawful act, and in the plural the damages paid for it.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) The ''danno biologico'', injury to a person's physical health, entered the dictionaries in the 1980s, and ''danno collaterale'' (1990) is a calque of English [[m|en|collateral damage]].^(GDLI) In medicine it names a lesion of an organ.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011) In German, ''Damno'' has been a banking term for a discount on a loan since about 1600.^(DIFIT)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 12th century – The Venetian ''Proverbia que dicuntur'' is the first record.^(TLIO)

+ * Early 13th century – Rinaldo d'Aquino uses ''danno'' in a love poem.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses ''danneggiare'' “to harm”.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1294 – ''Dannoso'' “harmful” appears in Brunetto Latini.^(DELI 1999)

+ * About 1600 – German ''Damno'' is recorded as a banking term.^(DIFIT)

+ * 1990 – ''Danno collaterale'' appears in the press, after English ''collateral damage''.^(GDLI)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|damage]], [[m|en|harm]]: the bad effect that an event or action has on people, things or abstract entities: ''La grandine ha fatto gravi danni ai vigneti.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(law)'' Injury to someone's rights or interests caused by another's unlawful act.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # In the plural, [[m|en|damages]]: the sum paid in compensation: ''Ha fatto causa al vicino per ottenere i danni.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Gabrielli 2020)

+ # ''(medicine)'' A lesion or impairment of an organ or part of the body: ''danno renale''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''(literary)'' Pain, grief, ''danno eterno'', damnation.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Gabrielli 2020)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[danneggiare]]

+ * [[dannare]]

+ * [[dannato]]

+ * [[dannazione]]

+ * [[danneggiamento]]

+ * [[danneggiato]]

+ * [[dannoso]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[dannaggio]]

+ * [[dannevole]]

+ * [[condannare]]

+ * [[la|damnum]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''A danno di'' or ''ai danni di'' means “to the detriment of”, ''fare danni'' “to break things, cause trouble”, and ''mio danno'', ''tuo danno'' “so much the worse for me, for you”.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010) ''Il danno e la beffa'', loss and mockery together, is a common phrase.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Gabrielli 2020)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}