discoprire

Forms

discoprire (first-person singular present discòpro, first-person singular past historic discoprìi or discopèrsi, past participle discopèrto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian forms include descoprire, descovrir and desconvrir, the last two northern.^[2] The variant Old Italian discovrire is recorded from the 14th century and is now archaic.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin discooperiō (“to strip of a covering”), a verb recorded in Latin from the 2nd–3rd century AD and used in the Vulgate.^[6][3][7][1] The Late Latin verb was made of dis- and cooperiō (“to cover”), and Wiktionary also gives a contracted form discoperiō.^[1][4][8] DELI, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli see a formation within Italian: from Italian dis- + coprire (or a derivative of scoprire).^{[9][10][11][5]}

The Late Latin verb is found across Romance: Romanian descoperi, French découvrir (from the 12th century), Old Occitan descubrir, Catalan descobrir, Spanish descubrir and Portuguese descobrir.^[6] The English verb discover comes from the Old French form descovrir.^[3]

In many Italian dialects, as with coprire, forms with metathesis of the ⟨r⟩ (of the type ⟨discropire⟩) sit beside the direct continuations of the Latin verb.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, from the last quarter of the 12th century.^[2] DELI dates the reflexive sense “to come into view, appear” to 1282 (Restoro), “to make known” to before 1292 (Bono Giamboni) and “to uncover” to Dante, before 1321.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Old Italian senses ran from the material to the abstract: taking off what lies on top of something, such as clothes or a cover, then laying something open to view, and figuratively making a thing known or finding out the truth about it.^[2] Medieval texts also use it of taking the harness off a horse (Boccaccio's Teseida) and, in military use, of a soldier exposing himself to attack.^[6][2]

To uncover the head, discoprire il capo, was a sign of respect or obedience, as in Francesco da Barberino.^[12] Dante uses it of the shores that the turning heaven of the Moon “covers and uncovers” (cuopre e discuopre i liti).^[4][13] A Paduan proverb of 1452 speaks of covering one altar to uncover another, that is taking on a new debt to pay an old one.^[6]

In modern Italian the word is literary, and the everyday verb is scoprire.^[10][7][13]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the earliest record.^[2]
• 1282 – Restoro uses the reflexive sense “to appear”.^[9]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for “to make known”.^[9]
• 1294 – Florentine dischoprire “to uncover” appears in the statutes of the Orsanmichele company.^[6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “to uncover”.^[9]
• 1452 – A Paduan proverb uses it of a new debt paying an old one.^[6]
• 1518–1525 – Firenzuola uses the reflexive “to undress”.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To uncover: to take away what covers or hides something: La pioggia discoprì le pietre della vecchia strada.^{[10][5][4][7]}
2. (literary) To discover or invent; to find something new.^{[10][5][11][14]}
3. (literary, figurative) To make known, reveal, especially one's thoughts or wishes.^[10][7][15]
4. (literary, reflexive) Discoprirsi: to undress; figuratively, to show one's true nature.^[5][11][15]
5. (literary, pronominal) Discoprirsi: to come into view, appear.^[5][4][15]

Word family

• discoprimento
• discopritore

Related words

• coprire
• scoprire
• Latin cooperiō
• French découvrir
• English discover

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1331
4. ^ 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)
5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ 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. 2, 731
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 145
9. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 620
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli