apportare

Forms

apportare (first-person singular present appòrto, first-person singular past historic apportài, past participle apportàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin apportō (“to bring to”), formed from ad- (“to”) and portō (“to carry”).^[2][3][4][1] The three senses it has in Italian, “to bring”, “to cause” and “to report”, were already Latin, and they are found in Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance too.^[5]

The same verb is Old French aporter (10th century), French apporter, Old Occitan aportar, Catalan aportar, Galician aportar, Spanish aportar, Portuguese aportar and Romansh aporter.^[5][3][6]

The noun apporto (“contribution”) is a borrowing of French apport.^[2][5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is aportare in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, with the sense “to carry to, bring”; the spelling apportare follows in Guittone d'Arezzo.^[2][7][8] The LEI has an Old Piedmontese aporter in the Sermoni subalpini, about 1200.^[5]

Semantic evolution

By the end of the 13th century the verb meant both “to bring” and “to cause, produce”, used first by Dante (1293–1294), and also “to report” (Guittone).^[2] Dante calls the sun quel che apporta mane e lascia sera “the one that brings morning and leaves evening” (Paradiso 27), and the Fatti di Cesare tell how Pompey's head was brought to Caesar.^[9][10] The TLIO also records “to supply, provide”, “to escort” and “to entail”.^[7]

The sense “to adduce, cite” in an argument appears in Anton Maria Salvini before 1729.^[2] In modern Italian the verb is mostly used with abstract objects, “to bring about”: improvements, changes, damage, relief.^[11][12][13] The old sense “to foretell, portend” survives in sayings about omens.^[11][13]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses aportare.^[2][7]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses apportare, also as “to report”.^[2]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses the verb for “to cause”.^[2]
• Before 1729 – Anton Maria Salvini uses it for “to adduce”.^[2]
• 1931 – Apporto “contribution” is recorded in Panzini's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To bring or carry to someone; to contribute: apportare nuove idee al gruppo.^[4][8][13]
2. To cause, produce: La siccità apportò gravi danni ai raccolti.^[4][11][8]
3. To make changes to something: apportare modifiche.^[11][12]
4. (law) To adduce, cite proof or examples.^[4][8][1]
5. (archaic) To report, tell.^[4][8][13]
6. To portend, foretell.^[11][13]

Word family

• apporto
• apportatore
• apportamento
• rapportare
• rapporto

Related words

• portare
• Latin apportō
• French apporter

Usage notes

Old Italian also had a separate apportare formed from porto “harbour”, “to put into port”, found from the late 13th century in the Novellino and Giovanni Villani.^{[14][9][10][7]}

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 301
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c d e 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