bestemmiare

Italian

Alternative forms

  • biastemmare, biastemmiare (archaic)

Etymology

Blend of biastemmiare (archaic form) + bestia (beast). The former derives from Late Latin blastēmāre (variant of blasphēmāre). Doublet of blasfemare and biasimare.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /be.stemˈmja.re/
  • Rhymes: -are
  • Hyphenation: be‧stem‧mià‧re

Verb

bestemmiàre (first-person singular present bestémmio, first-person singular past historic bestemmiài, past participle bestemmiàto, auxiliary avére)

  1. (transitive) to blaspheme
    • mid 1300smid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto V”, in Inferno [Hell], lines 34–36; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate], 2nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:
      Quando giungon davanti a la ruina,
      quivi le strida, il compianto, il lamento;
      bestemmian quivi la virtù divina.
      When they arrive in front of the destruction, there [are] the screams, the crying, the lamentation; there they blaspheme the divine virtue.
  2. (intransitive) to commit blasphemy [auxiliary avere]
  3. (transitive, by extension) to curse
    • 1321, Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia: Inferno [The Divine Comedy: Hell], 12th edition (paperback), Le Monnier, published 1994, Canto III, page 43, lines 103–105:
      Bestemmiavano Dio e lor parenti, ¶ l’umana spezie e ’l loco e ’l tempo e ’l seme ¶ di lor semenza e di lor nascimenti.
      God they blasphemed and their progenitors, ¶ the human race, the place, the time, the seed ¶ of their engendering and of their birth.
    • 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio, “Giornata nona, Novella I [Ninth Day, First Story]”, in Decamerone [Decameron], Tommaso Hedlin, published 1527, page 210:
      Rinuccio dolente, & beſtemmiando la ſua ſventura non ſe ne tornò a caſa per tutto queſto
      Rinuccio, crestfallen and cursing his evil fortune, nevertheless went not home
  4. (intransitive, by extension) to curse, to swear, to cuss [auxiliary avere]
  5. (intransitive, by extension) to express erroneous judgments, to rant [auxiliary avere]
  6. (transitive, by extension) to offend, to insult
  7. (intransitive, by extension) to get angry [auxiliary avere]
  8. (transitive, figurative) to butcher (a language)
  9. (transitive, figurative) to revile
    • c. 1820, Giacomo Leopardi, “Zibaldone di pensieri [Mixture of Thoughts]”, in Pensieri di varia filosofia e di bella letteratura [Thoughts of Varied Philosophy and Fine Literature], Florence: Le Monnier, published 1898, page 104:
      mentre bestemmiano l’arte e predicano la natura, non s’accorgono che la minor arte è minor natura
      they revile art and praise nature, not realizing that less art equals less nature

Conjugation

References

Anagrams

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