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)
- (transitive) to blaspheme
- mid 1300s–mid 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.
- (intransitive) to commit blasphemy [auxiliary avere]
- (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
- (intransitive, by extension) to curse, to swear, to cuss [auxiliary avere]
- (intransitive, by extension) to express erroneous judgments, to rant [auxiliary avere]
- (transitive, by extension) to offend, to insult
- (intransitive, by extension) to get angry [auxiliary avere]
- (transitive, figurative) to butcher (a language)
- (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
Related terms
References
- Accademia della Crusca (1729–1738) “biastemmare e biastemmiare”, in Vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca (in Italian), 4 edition – on www.lessicografia.it
- bestemmiare in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Anagrams
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