dirupare

Forms

dirupare (first-person singular present dirùpo, first-person singular past historic dirupài, past participle dirupàto, auxiliary (intransitive) èssere or (transitive) avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is a parasynthetic formation from Italian di- + rupe, with the prefix in its sense of descent.^[2][3][4][5] The noun dirupo is formed from the verb without a suffix.^[2]

The verb is older in Medieval Latin dirupare, used by Salimbene in the 13th century, and dirrupare in the Codex Cajetanus of 978.^[6][7] Meyer-Lübke and Körting set up Vulgar Latin *disrūpāre for the forms of other languages: Spanish derrumbar, Portuguese derrubar, Old French desrube and Old Occitan deruben.^[8][9][6]

The Latin noun rūpēs (“cliff”) probably comes from rumpō (“to break”).^[10] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *Hrewp- (“to break”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Andrea da Grosseto's Tuscan text of 1268, in the sense to throw down or fall from a height.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Giordano da Pisa uses it in 1304 for falling headlong, and Boccaccio about 1336 for rushing down a cliff.^[2] Old Italian also used it for a slope sliding down, for the collapse or demolition of buildings, and figuratively for hurling oneself at someone or crushing a hope.^[11] Tasso compares a boulder that ruinoso dirupa through the woods.^[4][13]

The participle dirupato “steep, full of cliffs” dates from about 1350.^[2] The sense of being or becoming steep grew out of it.^[13] Today the word is literary or rare, though falling from a height is still a use in the language of mountaineering.^[13][4]

Timeline

• 978 – Medieval Latin dirrupare appears in the Codex Cajetanus.^[6]
• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses the verb.^[11][12]
• 1304 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for falling headlong.^[2]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses the noun dirupo.^[2]
• About 1336 – Boccaccio uses it for rushing down a cliff.^[2]
• About 1350 – Dirupato appears in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, archaic) To throw down from a cliff or height; by extension, to knock down or destroy.^[4][12][13]
2. (intransitive, literary) To plunge or fall headlong from above: il masso dirupò fino a valle.^[4][14][13]
3. (intransitive, figurative) To fall into ruin.^[4][14]
4. (intransitive, rare) To be or become steep.^[4][15][13]

Word family

• dirupo
• dirupato
• dirupamento

Related words

• rupe
• Latin rūpēs
• Spanish derrumbar

Usage notes

The intransitive verb takes essere, the transitive avere; the pronominal diruparsi is also used.^[1][12][13] An old variant is derupare.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1321
7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse