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apparare

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word apparare

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1321 Venetian text More words from the 14th century
Inherited from
Latin apparo
Ultimate origin
Latin parō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin parō
Italian parare
French parade
English parade
Spanish parar
English pare
Latin apparō
Italian apparare
From the same root
Latin disparō ← parō
Latin imperō ← parō
Latin parābilis ← parō
Latin parātus ← parō
Latin praeparō ← parō
Latin reparō ← parō
Latin sēparō ← parō
Spanish parada ← parō
Latin apparātus ← apparō

Forms

apparare (first-person singular present appàro, first-person singular past historic apparài, past participle apparàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin apparō (“to prepare”), formed with ad- from parō (“to prepare”).[2][3][4][5][1]

The Latin verb lives on in Old French aparer, Catalan aparar, Spanish aparar and Portuguese aparar.[6][7] The LEI notes that the Romance languages show two main senses of the simple verb, probably already Late Latin, “to make ready” and “to defend”, and the same split in the compound: Romanian apăra means “to ward off, defend”.[6][7] The sense “to adorn” may be due to the influence of apparātus (“equipment; display”).[6] apparecchiare comes from a derivative of the same verb, Vulgar Latin *appariculare.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record in the LEI is a Venetian text of 1321, for dressing poor priests.[6] Its first record of the sense “to prepare, make ready” is the vernacular version of Abbot Isaac, in the middle of the 14th century;[6][3] GRADIT dates the verb about 1350.[6][3] Devoto–Oli and Zingarelli give the 13th century.[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Pulci, in 1483, has the adjective apparato, “prepared, ready”, of a person.[6] A Venetian text of 1321 uses the verb for dressing poor priests, and the sense “to adorn, deck out” is in Veneroni's dictionary of 1681.[6] The reflexive appararsi, to put on the vestments, is Ariosto's: come i sacerdoti ... / Quando alle feste solenni s'apparano.[10][11] In shipbuilding, from 1797 to 1845, it meant to dress the planks of a hull so that they fit together.[6]

The dialects keep other senses: Ligurian of Sanremo apaṛá “to hold out (the hand), to hold open (a sack)”, Apulian apparà “to prepare the ground for sowing”.[6] Tommaseo already marked the senses “to prepare” and “to learn” as obsolete.[11]

Timeline

  • 1321 – A Venetian text uses it for dressing priests.[6]
  • c. 1350 – The vernacular Abbot Isaac uses it for “to prepare”.[6][3]
  • 1483 – Pulci uses apparato “ready”.[6]
  • 1681 – Veneroni records it for “to adorn”.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (obsolete) To prepare, make ready.[3][4][12][10]
  2. (obsolete) To adorn, deck out.[3][4][10]
  3. (reflexive, obsolete) To put on the vestments; to dress.[4][12][9][10]

Word family

  • apparamento
  • apparatore

Usage notes

Old and literary Italian also had apparare “to learn”, the commonest sense in the TLIO's corpus, first recorded in Andrea da Grosseto in 1268, as in Dante's e forse lei sarà buon s'i' l'apparo.[13][12][9] GRADIT and Devoto–Oli derive it from Latin apparare “to prepare”, probably influenced by imparare, and DEI thinks the sense of study grew in the medieval Latin schools.[3][4][14] Zingarelli and Sabatini–Coletti instead take it from imparare with a change of prefix, through association with apparare “to prepare”.[9][12]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 169
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 61
  9. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  13. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  14. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 250

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Apparare.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/apparare. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

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