Zibaldone

by Leopardi, Giacomo

  Tetta tettare [to suckle]—τιτθὸς [breast] or τίτθη or τιτθὴ (which also stands for nurse and female ancestor: now in these senses one also says τηθὴ) with its derivations. See p. 4007. Εὐθὺ, εὐθὺς, etc., for subito [immediately], etc.—a dirittura, dirittamente [straightaway, directly], etc., for subito. (26 Dec., Feast of St. Stephen, 1823.)

  Familiar uses of Latin recte in exact correspondence with our bene, French bien, etc. (which according to the most common meaning of recte, mean the same, that is probe [properly], etc.), can be seen in Forcellini under recte in the last two paragraphs of the second column of the said article. (26 Dec., Feast of St. Stephen, 1823.)

  Setola for the Latin seta [bristle], setoloso setolato for setosus, and see the other derivations of setola, and Forcellini under setula. (26 Dec. 1823, Feast of St. Stephen.)

  Nivitari passive from nivo is [to snow]. Du Cange Glossary. (27 Dec. 1823, Feast of St. John the Evangelist.)

  [4005] Greek positivized diminutives. Εἰρίον, ἔριον, from εἶρος [wool]. (27 Dec. 1823.)

  Positivized diminutive verbs. Ringhiare that is ringulare from ringere [to snarl]. See the French and Spanish. (27 Dec. 1823.) Avvinchiare, avvinghiare [to clutch], and many other similar Italian verbs in ghiare and chiare, iare, etc., are absolute diminutives (almost all and for the most part or all and always positivized), and diminutives not in Italian but in Latin which is where they show absolutely that they have come from, that is from their respective verbs in ulare, known or unknown. So also many Spanish verbs in jar, French in iller, etc. So too nouns and other parts of speech, etc. (27 Dec. 1823), succhiare [to suck], succiare (sugo is, suggere, sucer, etc.). Morchia (in the Marche we say morca)—amurca [dregs]. —However, such verbs, etc., could also be formed from Latin or Italian nouns, known or unknown, as, e.g., ringhiare from ringhio (a noun in use), which even if it were from a ringulus, this would not be diminutive, or from nouns which while they are diminutive in Latin, in ulus, are not in Italian, etc. (27 Dec. 1823, Feast of St. John Apostle and Evangelist.) Of this sort are the verbs rugghiare [to roar] and mugghiare [to bellow], mugliare (see p. 4014, paragraph 4) mugolare, mugiolare, muggiolare with the derivations, etc., of these and of mugghiare, rugghiare, etc., on which however I remember having spoken elsewhere and see what was said there [→Z 1241]. (28 Dec., Feast of the Holy Innocents, 1823.) See p. 4008, paragraphs 4 and the last.

  Positivized diminutives. Vasello [vessel]. See the Crusca, with its derivatives, and under Vagello with its derivatives. (28 Dec. 1823.)

  Italian plurals in a. Vasella plural of vasello. (28 Dec. 1823.) Vasa plural of vaso. Crusca and Ariosto, Satire 3.

  Passive participles in active or neuter sense, etc. Apercibido for made aware, being on one’s guard, etc. (Don Quixote). Inteso for informato, intendente [informed], etc. (entendido, entendu. See Spanish and French. If however in this sense it belonged to the passive neuter intendersi, entenderse, etc., it would not be part [4006] of our topic). Discreto Italian and Spanish (which it seems at least for the most part to be proper to) and French for discernente, etc. See the Glossary, etc. (29 Dec. 1823.) Conocido, desconocido, for conoscente, that is grateful, and sconoscente, and we say both of them, and also disconoscente. See the Crusca under disconosciuto, example 2, where it means the same as which does not know, which is without knowing, and note that it is by Guittone, that is very ancient.

  For p. 3955, margin. —particularly of this however1—Coltellinaio [cutler], etc. etc. (29 Dec. 1823.)

  Avvisato, avisado, etc., in the sense of shrewd, etc., any who believed it to be a passive meaning from the active of avvisare that is avvertire, etc., would be very much mistaken. (29 Dec. 1823.)

  Passive participles in active or neuter sense, used as adjectives. See Forcellini under consultus [well-considered, skillful] where I do not approve of the way in which he explains the origin of the active or neuter meaning of this word, because he has not considered the very many other examples which there are of such participles used in this way, adjectivally or not, in which a similar explanation has no part. In particular, there are examples in meaning similar to that of consultus, both in Latin and in modern languages, such as cautus, avvisato, avvertito, etc., here and there noted by me elsewhere [→Z 2340, 3851, 3899, 3960, 3992] and consideratus [maturely considered, circumspect] actively in Latin and Italian, etc., on which Forcellini and the Crusca, the Spanish and French. See also the compounds, etc., of consultus in this sense, such as Jurisconsultus, etc., and of consideratus, such as inconsideratus, etc., and the same of other such participles. (29 Dec. 1823.)

  Appellito as, apellidar [to name], etc. (30 Dec. 1823.)

  Greek positivized diminutives. τιτθὸς [breast], etc. τιτθίον (as in Latin mamma and mammilla in the same sense, on which elsewhere [→Z 3843, 4004]), τιτθὴ, etc., and τιτθὶς ίδος, almost nutricula [nurse], etc. (30 Dec. 1823.) See the following page, paragraph 1.

  Positivized diminutives. Sencillo from sincerus [genuine]. Similarly pretto from purus [pure], mentioned elsewhere [→Z 3941], with the same sense, and both are adjectival diminutives which is rare, etc. Tenellus, tenellulus [dainty], lascivulus [playful], blandulus [charming], misellus, etc. etc., miserello [wretched], etc. etc., but it is rare for adjectival diminutives to be positivized, etc. etc. [4007] Seggiola, seggiolo [chair] (see the supradiminutive derivatives, and the augmentatives too, like seggiolone, formed from the diminutive, which is worth noting, and could not logically happen if the diminutive were not positivized, or did not have a meaning separate from its diminutive sense, etc., which is frequent in such cases) for sedia, seggia, seggio, although they have a more restricted sense, etc. And see what I said elsewhere [→Z 3687] about Latin sella [saddle], and the Crusca, etc. (1 Jan. 1824.)

  For p. 4004. We say tettola too, which the Crusca expressly calls a diminutive of tetta [teat], as in Latin mamma and mammilla with the same sense, and as in Greek τίτθη, etc., and τιτθίον with the same meaning. See the previous page, end, and p. 4001. (2 Jan. 1824.)

  Positivized diminutives. Porcello [young pig], etc. See the Crusca and note that this positivization is more characteristic of our ancients and 14th-century writers, than of the modern language. Forcellini, etc. (2 Jan. 1824.) See Forcellini on Puera [girl], example 1.

  Latin supradiminutives. Agellulus [small field], Asellulus [young ass], etc. (2 Jan. 1824.) Tenellulus [dainty]. See p. 3987.

  To the various changes to the form of Greek verbs (in their root, or elsewhere, etc.) without any alteration in meaning, mentioned elsewhere [→Z 3284], add those in ννύω or ννυμι, like κεράω, κεραννύω, κεράννυμι [to mix, to blend]; χρώω, χρωννύω, χρώννυμι [to touch, to stain] which all mean the same, and are just one verb. I leave aside the very common change in μι, found in so many forms, which is general and so characteristic of Greek usage, etc. etc., and which similarly does not change the meaning at all, which has often caused people to forget, or not to use, or even to know the true stem in ω which in many verbs one supposes, or one has to suppose to have been used, although it is not actually found, etc. (2 Jan. 1824.)

  Passive participles in an active or neuter sense, etc. Trascurato, tracutato, tracotato, straccurato [negligent, neglected], etc. See the Crusca under Tracotare, although that etymology is wrong because tracotare is from the Provençal cuite or cuyte, cuyter, etc., old Spanish cuita, cuitar [suffering, to strive], etc., modern Spanish cuidado, cuidar [care, to take care of], etc. (4 Jan. 1824.)

  Greek positivized diminutives. φρούριον [fort, garrison]. See Scapula. (4 Jan., Sunday, 1824.)

  [4008] For p. 3969. The Spanish too have the diminutive in uelo, which like our uolo is the same as olo and comes from the Latin in olus or ulus. (5 Jan., Vigil of the Epiphany, 1824.)

  Greek positivized diminutives: ἀκόντιον [javelin] which has driven out the use of the positive word from which it derived. See Scapula πεδίον [a plain
] See Scapula. (5 Jan., Vigil of the Epiphany, 1824.)

  Italian participles in ito and uto, of which I have spoken elsewhere [→Z 2688–91, 3074–78]. Apparito and apparuto (Machiavelli, Istorie, bk. 7, Opere, 1550, part 1, p. 268, middle). The latter however, as well as not having, as far as I know, any other authority than that of a writer who gives very little attention to language, particularly in the History, where it could even be a printing error, may come from apparere [to appear] (whereas the former is from apparire), hence apparso as well, as from parere [to seem], paruto, and parso. Comparere is not found, at least in the Crusca, although comparso is, today much more frequently used than comparire, from which however comparso does not come, and is perhaps modern and formed only by analogy with apparso and parso, the most common forms today. (5 Jan., Vigil of the Epiphany, 1824.)

  Italian frequentative, etc., verbs. Sputacchiare, stiracchiare from sputare [to spit], stirare [to stretch]. This form in acchiare and in occhiare, icchiare, ecchiare, ucchiare and in ghiare, etc. (see the last thought on this page), and others of the kind, all have their origin from classical Latin (meaning the same as Latin culare), in which this form is diminutive as well or pejorative or frequentative, etc., and perhaps directly later from barbarian Latin, at least many of these words do, for example sputacchiare from sputaculare, etc. See p. 4005, paragraph 2. —To the already mentioned [→Z 3764] crepolare [to crack], add screpolare, etc. —Sghignazzare, ghignazzare from sghignare, ghignare [to sneer]. (6 Jan., Feast of the Epiphany, 1824.) Ammontare, ammonticare (see p. 4004, paragraph 2), ammonticchiare, ammonticellare [to heap up]. Raggruzzare, raggruzzolare [to hoard].

  To the already mentioned [→Z 2757–58] inopinus, necopinus, etc., add odorus, which seems to me only a contraction of odoratus [that has a smell], and in fact is a word characteristically used by poets, as the ones referred to above, etc. See Forcellini. (6 Jan. 1824.)

  What I have said in several other places [→Z 980–81, 2281–84, 2984, 3514–15, 3886, 3996] on the subject of the regular change of Latin cul into Italian chi, may be said as well about gul into ghi, etc. See p. 4005, paragraph 2. (6 Jan. 1824, Feast of the Epiphany.) See p. 4109.

  [4009] Positivized diminutives. Fragola [strawberry] from fraga. See the Crusca, Forcellini, Glossary, and French, Spanish, etc. Ugola and uvola for uva [grapes]. (7 Jan. 1824.)

  V for g or vice versa. See the thought before. (7 Jan. 1824.)

  Positivized Greek diminutives: οἰκίον for οἶκος and οἰκία [house]. Note that it is very ancient, because characteristic of Homer. Or perhaps of the Ionians, especially the ancient ones. Arrian, an imitator of the latter, uses it in his Indica 29, 16; 30, 9. Scapula only cites Homer. It is positivized in Arrian too (7 Jan. 1824.) The same may be said in terms of antiquity or of the Ionic dialect, especially the ancient one, about the positivized diminutive προβάτιον [livestock], which is in Hippocrates, or whoever is the author of the book, etc., and see elsewhere [→Z 4002]. That observation together with this one on the word οἰκίον and others that may be made, can lead to some good conjectures about the use of positivized diminutives in ancient Greek and Ionic, etc. (7 Jan. 1824.) πλημμυρὶς ίδος. [flood] φυκίον [seaweed, a fish]. (7 Jan. 1824.)

  Frequentative and diminutive Italian verbs, etc. Morsecchiare, morseggiare [to nibble at] (with their derivatives, etc.) which the Crusca calls the diminutive and the frequentative respectively of mordere [to bite]. Aggrumolare from aggrumare [to clot], which is not in the Crusca, although aggrumato, digrumare [to ruminate] are, etc. (8 Jan. 1824.)

  Aspirate v. Italian tardivo, Spanish tardío [late, slow]. (Cervantes, Don Quixote, part 1, ch. 47, beginning, Madrid ed., which I have.) (8 Jan. 1824.)

  To what I said elsewhere [→Z 3817–18] about the phrase ὀλίγου or πολλοῦ δεῖν [almost, far from], etc., add Arrian, Indica 43, 6. “τοσούτου δεῖ τά γε ἐπέκεια ταύτης τῆς χώρης … οἰκεόμενα εἶναι” [“so far are the parts of this region which lie beyond … from being habitable”]; and other similar phrases of the same kind. τοσούτου ἔδει, ἐδέησεν, δέον [was far, being far] (Lucian, Nigrinus, Opera, 1, 35). πόσου δεῖ, etc. etc. (8 Jan. 1824.)

  To what I said elsewhere [→Z 1109, 3288] about juntar add ayuntar (aggiuntare) [to join] with its derivatives, etc., and perhaps coyuntar too (see the Dictionaries) and similar compounds, if there are any. See too the Crusca on giuntare with its derivatives, etc. (8 Jan. 1824.)

  For p. 3979. To what has been said about κάρχαρος [jagged], add its derivatives, and the compound καρχαρόδους, etc. (8 Jan. 1824.)

  Grecism. Per parte mia, per la mia parte [for my part], etc. etc. See the second annotation of Gronovius on Lucian’s Nigrinus, Opera, Amsterdam 1687, tome 1, p. 1005, beginning. (8 Jan. 1824.)

  [4010] Passive participles in an active or neuter sense, etc. Entendido for intendente [understanding, skilled]. Cervantes, Don Quixote, ch. 47 or 48, part 1. See the Dictionaries. Mirado for mirante [admiring, admired]: mal mirado [disliked], etc. See the Dictionaries. (10 Jan. 1824.)

  Male for non [not], etc., mentioned elsewhere [→Z 2925–26, 3970]. See the preceding thought and the Spanish dictionaries, etc. (10 Jan. 1824.)

  There are two sorts of courage each the complete opposite of the other. The one which derives directly and characteristically from reflection, the other from no reflection at all. The former is always and despite whatever force it has, weak, uncertain, brief, and little to be relied on both by others and the person in whom it is found, etc. (10 Jan. 1824.)

  Positivized Greek diminutives. κρανίον in the sense of capo [head] for κράνον or κάρηνον (from which comes κράνον by metathesis) or etc. See Scapula. —τεύτλιον and τευτλὶς for τεῦτλον [beet]. In Athenaeus I find σεύτλιον too with the same meaning as σεῦτλον. See Scapula. And we do have bietola [beet] (hence bietolone [simpleton]) from beta, positivized diminutive, which we replace with bieta in poetry, as the Crusca observes, etc. See the Glossary, etc., on betula [birch], if it is there, etc. (10 Jan. 1824.)

  To what I said elsewhere [→Z 2864, 2891–92, 3587, 4000] about the redundancy of the pronoun ἄλλος and altro [other] in many Greek and Italian phrases, and about the absolute or virtual meaning of nulla [nothing] or nessuno [nobody, no], etc. etc., which the pronoun referred to often has in our speech, add the phrases non ne fece altro [he did nothing], non ne fate altro [do nothing] and such, where altro stands for niente [nothing], and add too that such a use of this pronoun, as well as being analogous to the redundancy both in Greek and Italian mentioned before, is also analogous to a particular use of the plural word ἄλλα which the Greeks adopt sometimes for cose frivole, vane, da nulla [trifling, empty things], that is in a word nulla, as in a passage in Phoenix Colophonius, poet, in Athenaeus, bk. 12, pp. 530f [4011] “οὐ γὰρ ἄλλα κηρύσσω,” which Dalechamps translates as “frivola non denuntio” [“I do not give official announcement of trifles”]: fine, but it should properly be non enim nihil (that is rem or res nihili) denuntio [for I do not give official announcement of nothing (that is of a thing or things of no value)]. And certainly what Scapula says is relevant that in Euripides ἄλλα is explained by rationi non consentanea [things not consistent with reason]. And here likewise the use of the adverb ἄλλως for incassum, frustra [in vain], temere [at random], etc. (on which usage see Scapula and the Greek index to Cassius Dio with the passages there indicated, on one of which there is a note, where it is said that such a usage has been illustrated, demonstrated, etc. by Perizonius, in his commentary on Aelian, etc.),a1 and partly even the use of the same adverb with the meanings noted by me with illustrations in the Annotazioni on Mai’s Eusebius, and in the notes on Plato’s Phaedo, at the end, etc.2 (10 Jan. 1824.) In Euripides Tusanus explains ἄλλα by οὐκ ἐοικότα as *“diversions from the theme.”* It may be that this is the right meaning and t
he origin of such a use of the word ἄλλα both in Euripides and Phoenix. Nonetheless I do not think such a usage is unconnected with our subject and with the analogy with the Italian usage referred to above, etc. (10 Jan. 1824.)

  Positivized diminutives. Scintilla [spark] and its derivatives, etc. See the etymology of scintilla in Forcellini and in the notes to Lucian’s Timon, beginning, Opera, Amsterdam 1687, tome 1, p. 55, note 7. (11 Jan., Sunday, 1824.)

  To what I said elsewhere [→Z 3691, 3985–86] about the ancient meno (root of memini [to remember]) and our rammentare [to remember], etc., which perhaps derives from it, etc., add mentio [mention], verbal demonstrative of the supine mentum, hence our, etc., menzionare, etc. —Mentovare, etc. (11 Jan., Sunday, 1824.) See p. 4016.