Ridere

Ridere is a verb meaning “to laugh” in Italian and in Latin. It derives from the Latin ridēre and has cognates across the Romance languages, such as French rire, Spanish reír, Portuguese rir, and Romanian a râde. The Latin root also underlies English words like ridiculous and ridicule.

In Italian, ridere functions as a regular verb of the -ere conjugation, with the stem rid-. The present indicative forms are io rido, tu rid i? (tu ridi), lui/lei ride, noi ridiamo, voi ridete, loro ridono. The passato prossimo is formed with avere plus the past participle riso, as in ho riso. The imperfect is ridevo, ridevi, rideva, ridevamo, ridevate, ridevano. The future is riderò, riderai, riderà, rideremo, riderete, rideranno. The gerund is ridendo, and the past participle riso. Common idioms include ridere di qualcosa (to laugh at something), ridere a crepapelle (to laugh uproariously), and ridere di gusto (to laugh heartily).

In Latin, ridēre is the verb “to laugh” with principal parts ridēre, rīdēō, rīsī, rīsum. It is used both of literal laughing and of laughing at someone or something, sometimes with sarcasm or mockery. Latin forms appear across tenses and voices, with similar constructions to express cause, attitude, or irony.

See also: cognate terms in Romance languages; the word’s semantic family related to humor and mockery in classical and modern usage.