apporre

Forms

apporre (first-person singular present appóngo, first-person singular past historic appósi, past participle appósto or appòsto, first-person singular imperfect apponévo, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin appōnō (“to place near”), formed of ad- (“near”) and pōnō (“to put, place”).^[2][3][4][1] The infinitive followed porre.^[5][6] Its participle appositus and the Late Latin appositiō entered Italian later by the learned route, as apposito and apposizione.^[2][3]

The LEI counts the verb among the popular words: the same Latin verb gave Old French apondre (“to join, add”), Old Occitan aponre, Old Spanish aponer and Portuguese apor, and in the Balkan Romance area Romanian apune (“to set (of the sun)”).^[7][3][8] The figurative sense “to impute, attribute; object” goes back to Romance times: it is in Old Catalan, Old Spanish and Old Portuguese as in Italian.^[7] Prati, on the other hand, calls the Italian verb not popular.^[9]

De Vaan explains the Latin simple verb as a contraction of Proto-Italic *po-sinō (“to put down”), built on sinō (“to let, allow”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Brunetto Latini's Rettorica (Florence, about 1260–61): l'una parte appone un nome a un fatto, e l'altra parte n'appone un altro (“one party gives a fact one name, and the other party gives it another”), in the sense “to apply, attach (a name)”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used apporre for placing and setting out (Dante's food that is s'appone, “set on the table”), for spreading an ointment, for attributing a crime to someone or accusing them, for objecting, and for imposing a penalty or condition.^[11][7] Boccaccio's la cui morte è apposta al mio marito (“whose death is laid at my husband's door”) shows the sense “impute”.^[4][13] From the 15th century the verb also meant “to find fault”, which survives in some dialects, such as Imolese apone.^[14][8]

Since the 18th century the main use has been bureaucratic: setting a seal, a signature or a date on a document (from Algarotti, 1764).^[7][13] The reflexive apporsi “to guess right” survives in the phrase se mal non mi appongo, “if I am not mistaken”.^[13][15]

Timeline

• About 1260–61 – Brunetto Latini's Rettorica has the verb, the first record in the TLIO.^[11]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses apposito.^[2]
• About 1308 – Dante uses apporre of food set on the table.^[7]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses it for adding a clause to a legal act.^[7]
• 1529 – Apposizione is first recorded, in Trissino.^[2]
• 1531 – Giambullari uses apposizione as a grammatical term.^[2]
• 1764 – Algarotti uses apporre for setting a seal or signature.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To put or write beside, above or below; to affix (a signature, stamp, seal or date to a document): il notaio appose la sua firma all'atto.^[4][16][15]
2. (transitive, literary) To attribute; to impute (a fault or crime) to someone.^[4][16][17]
3. (transitive, uncommon) To object, to find fault.^[4][16][15]
4. (apporsi, pronominal) To guess right, chiefly in se mal non mi appongo “if I am not mistaken”.^[13][18]

Word family

• apposito
• apposizione
• appostare
• appostamento
• apponibile
• appositivo

Related words

• porre
• Latin appōnō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 294
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 62
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 578
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 257
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli