crespare

Forms

crespare (first-person singular present créspo, first-person singular past historic crespài, past participle crespàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crispō (“to curl, crimp”), from crispus (“curly”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Gabrielli derives it instead from the Italian adjective crespo.^[6] The same Latin verb gave French crêper, Occitan crespar, Catalan crespar, Spanish crespar and Portuguese crispar.^[7]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *krispo- (“curly, crumpled”).^[8] Some scholars start from a form with ⟨-ps-⟩ because of Welsh crych “curly, wrinkled”, but de Vaan prefers an Italo-Celtic form with ⟨-sp-⟩, related to crīnis (“hair”) and crista (“crest”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine poem by G. di Lambertuccio Frescobaldi from 1318–1320, where it is said of the face: to wrinkle, to grow old.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Prati glosses the old verb as making folds in fabrics or curls in the hair.^[10] In Castiglione's Cortegiano men “si crespano i capegli e spelano le ciglia” (curl their hair and pluck their eyebrows).^[11][12] Stampa writes of time that “crespar le guancie” (wrinkles the cheeks).^[11]

Tommaseo already marked the verb as obsolete, and the modern dictionaries call it literary or archaic: in ordinary use increspare, recorded from the 14th century, has taken its place.^{[12][3][4][10]}

Timeline

• 1318–1320 – First record, in a Florentine poem.^[9]
• 1320 – Zingarelli's date for crespare.^[13]
• Before 1529 – Castiglione uses the verb of men curling their hair.^[2][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, literary) To make crespo: to curl, wrinkle or ruffle, increspare: Gli anni gli hanno crespato la fronte.^{[2][3][14][1]}
2. (pronominal, cresparsi) To become curly or wrinkled.^[3][14][13]

Word family

• crespatura
• accrespare

Related words

• crespo
• increspare
• Latin crispus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 123
6. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 347
11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 963
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)