La nike dell’asino: un caso di semantizzazione del raglio?

The nike of the donkey : a case of semantization of the braying ? · The donkey, although it was often considered a bad omen, is linked to the word "nike" and the verb "nikao" in a series of literary and figurative testimonies ranging from antiquity to the modern era. The reasons proposed so far do not manage to explain the totality of the attestations ; the analysis of an Aesopian fable (197 Hausrath, Hunger) leads to believe that behind many of these associations there may be a resemantization, which took place at a folkloric level, of the braying of the donkey with the verbal voice "niko", « I win ».