| Summary: | The article considers associative derivational semantics of the word sangue ‘blood’ in the Italian language. The derivatives of this word are classified into the following thematic groups: physical world, psychical world, social conflicts, family relationships, everyday life, rituals, nature. In the article, a motivation analysis of the semantic derivatives is carried out, universal and specific semantic transfers are identified, suppositions regarding the ethnocultural motivation of certain facts are described, data concerning the etymology of the words with the meaning «blood» (ital. sangue, ital. cruore) are provided. This paper is the first attempt to create an ethnolinguistic portrait of the word sangue in the Italian language. It is found out that this word has semantics traditional for other somatisms (e. g. derivatives of this word can name phenomena of both physical and psychical worlds), but at the same time it reflects the ambivalent perception of blood. It is also found that in the Italian language worldview blood is considered to be related to human animalistic nature, but it also symbolizes a redemptive sacrifice (of Jesus Christ or other martyrs). This ambivalent perception of the concept may be connected with the influence of the Christian religion on Italian traditional culture. Semantic and motivational connections of the word sangue are revealed, and owing to this we can speak about some universal (at least for European languages) concepts identified in the linguistic portrait of this word (e. g. blood is considered to be the quintessence of vital energy, it is also a symbol of genetic relationships). This article is based on the material taken from the biggest dictionaries of the Italian language – The Dictionary of the Italian Language by N. Tommaseo and The Major Dictionary of the Italian Language by S. Battaglia.
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