doppiare

Forms

doppiare (first-person singular present dóppio, first-person singular past historic doppiài, past participle doppiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian dopiare, doplare, dupplare and the northern dupler.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin duplō (“to double”), a verb recorded in Late Latin from Ulpian in the 3rd century and formed from Latin duplus (“double”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The verb is found across the Romance languages except Romanian:^[6] French doubler, Old Occitan doblar, Catalan doblar, Spanish doblar and Portuguese dobrar.^[7][8][1] The Latin adjective comes from Proto-Italic *duplos and can be analysed as duo (“two”) with a suffix -plus; it matches Ancient Greek διπλόος (diplóos, “double”).^[1][9]

The nautical sense “to round a cape” is a calque of the Spanish verb according to Devoto–Oli, Treccani and Sabatini–Coletti,^[10][11][12] and DELI's first record of it is the Hispanicising ⟨doblare⟩ of 1504.^[3] Körting explains it from Latin itself: in Romance the verb took over the sense “to fold, bend” of duplicō, hence “to sail round”, and Parodi set beside it Catalan dollar (“to round a headland”).^[8][7]

The sense “to dub a film” is a separate calque of the same French verb, made in 1933.^[4][3][10] GRADIT dates the French sense to 1919 and treats the Italian verb as a new formation from doppio.^[5] The sources differ on the French verb itself: Battisti and Alessio take it from English double, while Devoto, the GDLI and Treccani see an adaptation of English dub (“to finish, fit out”), which Treccani explains as a shortened form of the same English verb.^{[6][13][14][15]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Splanamento of Patecchio, written at Cremona in the 13th century, with the sense “to make twice as large”, and by extension “to make much greater”, also in strength or intensity.^[2] DELI's first record is in Dante, who died in 1321;^[3] in the Inferno the falling flames set the sand alight a doppiar lo dolore, “to double the pain”.^[14][16]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb was also intransitive, “to become double”, and the infinitive could be used as a noun for doubling; in poetry it meant to insert extra lines into a sonnet, doubling parts of its structure.^[2] Petrarch uses it for feelings that grow: a me doppia la sera e doglia e pianti, “for me the evening redoubles grief and tears”.^[5][14] An agricultural use, to give one lamb to two ewes to suckle, is recorded by DEI from Lastri.^[6][1]

From the 16th century the verb is a sailors' word: Vespucci writes ⟨doblare⟩ for passing a headland in 1504, and Pigafetta, who died before 1525, already has doppiare.^[3] The racing sense, to lap an opponent, is first recorded in Panzini's dictionary of 1942.^[3] The sense “to dub” appeared in the Domenica del Corriere of 24 December 1933, which explained that one therefore says doppiare un film.^[3] Cecchi used it of films shown abroad: I film non vengono neppur doppiati, “the films are not even dubbed”.^[14] In fashion the same verb means to line a fabric inside or outside.^[10]

Timeline

• 13th century – Patecchio's Splanamento (Cremona) has the verb in the sense “to double”.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses doppiare in the Divine Comedy.^[3][14]
• 1504 – Vespucci writes doblare for rounding a point of land.^[3]
• Before 1525 – Pigafetta uses doppiare in the nautical sense.^[3]
• 1919 – French doubler is recorded in the sense “to dub”.^[5]
• 1933 – The Domenica del Corriere of 24 December has doppiare un film, “to dub a film”.^[3][4]
• 1942 – Panzini's dictionary records the sense “to lap an opponent”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To double, make twice as much; by extension, to increase or intensify.^[5][12][1]
2. (nautical) To round or sail past a cape, headland, lighthouse or the end of a pier.^[5][10][15]
3. (sports) In a race on a track or circuit, to lap an opponent, getting a whole lap ahead.^[5][10][12]
4. (boxing) doppiare i colpi: to land two punches in quick succession.^[17][10][18]
5. To line a light fabric with a heavier one; in fashion, to line a garment inside or outside.^[5][17][10]
6. (uncommon) To join two metal sheets, to plate.^[5][15]
7. (rare) To have a lamb suckled by two ewes when one has too little milk.^[5][10][1]
8. (cinema) To dub a film or television programme; also to replace an actor's voice with another one, or, of the dubbing actor, with one's own.^{[5][10][15][1]}
9. (intransitive, archaic) To become double; by extension, to grow greatly.^[5][17]

Word family

• doppiaggio
• doppiato
• doppiatore
• doppiatura
• sdoppiare
• doppiamento
• doppiatrice
• indoppiare
• ridoppiare

Related words

• doppio
• Latin duplus
• French doubler

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1382
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli