disposare

Forms

disposare (first-person singular present dispòso, first-person singular past historic disposài, past participle disposàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian desponsare and Old Italian disponsare, which keep the Latin ⟨n⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin dēspōnsō (“to betroth”), a word Suetonius already uses.^[4][1][5][6] Latin formed it from dē- and spōnsō (“to promise in marriage”), an intensive of spondeō (“to pledge, promise”).^[7][6][8] Wiktionary stresses that the verb has nothing to do with posare.^[1]

DEI places it in Italy and in Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese: Spanish desposar and Portuguese desposar.^[4][9] The simple verb is sposare, which Meyer-Lübke takes into Italian from the North.^[9]

De Vaan traces the verb to an iterative Proto-Indo-European *spond-eie/o- (“to libate”) of the root *spend-, the same root as Ancient Greek σπένδω (spéndō, “to pour a libation”), so that a pledge was first a drink-offering.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dante's Vita nuova, of around 1292–93, has the first record, in the sense of taking someone in marriage.^[2] GRADIT dates the word before 1294.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for marrying and for betrothal in the ceremony of the desponsatio, and figuratively for a union like a marriage.^[2] In Purgatorio 5 a woman speaks of the man “che 'nnanellata pria / disposando m'avea con la sua gemma”, who had married her with his ring.^[5][11] In Paradiso 11 Christ “disposò lei col sangue benedetto”, wedded his bride with his blessed blood.^[8][11] An Old Italian Gospel says that Mary was disponsata to Joseph.^[11]

D'Annunzio revived the word in a historical setting, and Croce used it figuratively for one feeling joined to another.^[3][12] It is now archaic and literary.^[5][13]

Timeline

• 1292–1293 – Dante's Vita nuova has the first record.^[2]
• Before 1294 – GRADIT's date for the word.^[5]
• 1300s – Dante uses the verb twice in the Commedia.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic, literary) To marry, to take as wife.^{[5][6][8][13]}
2. (archaic, literary) To promise or give a woman in marriage, to betroth.^{[6][3][13][14]}
3. (figurative, literary) To unite, to join closely, also as disposarsi.^[3][12][14]

Word family

• disposamento

Related words

• sposare
• sposo
• sposa
• Latin spondeō

Usage notes

A different disposare, “to rest, stop”, is archaic and dialectal: GDLI takes it from posare with the prefix dis-, on the model of riposare, and the TLIO has it in the late 12th-century Ritmo di sant'Alessio from the Marche.^[15][2]

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 d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1350
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 746