dispogliare

Forms

dispogliare (first-person singular present dispòglio, first-person singular past historic dispogliài, past participle dispogliàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian despogliare, despoiare and despoglyare, the last in an Old Neapolitan text.^[2][3] The verb is Venetian despogiàr in Venetian.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dēspoliō (“to plunder, strip of”), formed from dē- and spolium (“skin; arms taken from an enemy, spoils”).^[4][5][6][1] The LEI files it among the inherited outcomes of the Latin verb, whose first sense was “to take the armour from a defeated enemy”.^[3] GRADIT adds that the modern form owes something to spogliare, and the TLIO derives it from that verb.^[5][2] Devoto reads the prefix as an intensive, GRADIT as a privative one.^[7][5]

The Latin verb lives on in every Romance language except Sardinian: Romanian despuia, Friulian dispueâ, Romansh spoglier, Old French despoillier, French dépouiller, Old Occitan despolhar, Catalan despullar and Spanish despojar.^[3][8] DEI notes that it is found in all the Italian dialects.^[4]

De Vaan derives the noun from Proto-Italic *spolio- (“skin, hide”), probably an o-grade noun from the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)pelH- (“to split, cleave”), so that the word first meant what is split or stripped off.^[9] The Latin verb is found from Plautus on.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Lombard Istoria of the Pseudo-Uguccione, from the first half of the 13th century, and its first sense is to strip someone of their clothes.^[2] GRADIT dates the word to the second half of the 13th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for stripping the arms from a defeated or killed enemy: Old Veronese despoiar in the legend of Saint Margaret at the end of the 13th century, Florentine dispogliare in the Ottimo commentary around 1334 and Boccaccio's Teseida in 1339–40.^[3][2] The TLIO also records it for cutting hair, plucking a bird, a snake shedding its skin, a tree losing its leaves, the stripping of a building's ornaments, and depriving someone of their goods.^[2] Dante speaks of an everlasting spring “che notturno Arïete non dispoglia”, that the night-time Ram does not strip of leaves.^[10]

Ariosto asks why people “de beni lor son dispogliati”, are stripped of their goods.^[5] Today the verb is obsolete or literary, replaced by spogliare.^[5][11]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – The Pseudo-Uguccione's Istoria has the first record.^[2]
• Late 13th century – Old Veronese despoiar is used of stripping a defeated enemy.^[3]
• 1287 – Zingarelli's date for the verb.^[12]
• 1339–1340 – Boccaccio uses dispogliare in the Teseida.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To strip or undress someone: dispogliare il vinto delle armi.^{[5][6][12][11]}
2. (figurative, literary) To deprive someone of something, to plunder.^{[5][6][11][13]}
3. (reflexive, rare) dispogliarsi: to undress, and figuratively to free oneself of thoughts or feelings.^[12]

Word family

• dispogliatore

Related words

• spogliare
• spoglia
• Latin spolium

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1511
4. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1349
5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli