rompere

Forms

rompere (first-person singular present rómpo, first-person singular past historic rùppi, past participle rótto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The old form Old Italian roppere is recorded from the 13th century, and roppimento “shipwreck” in 1264.^[2][3] The same assimilation of /mp/ to /pp/ is found in central and southern dialects, as in Roman roppe and Calabrian rùppiri.^[3] Battaglia lists further old and dialect forms such as rómpare, rompre and rùmpere.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rumpō (“to break, burst”).^[5][6][2][1] The verb survives in nearly the whole Romance area: French rompre, Occitan rompre, Catalan rompre, Spanish romper, Portuguese romper, Sardinian rúpere (“to break new ground”), Friulian rompi, Romansh ruomper and Romanian rupe.^[6][7][8] DÉRom reconstructs Proto-Romance */ˈrʊmp-e-/ with the senses “to break”, “to break new ground” and “to break out”, and holds “to break” to be the original one.^[9] In French dialects it was nearly ousted by casser.^[7]

The Latin verb had a nasal infix in the present, absent from the perfect rūpī and, from rūpēs (“cliff”).^[10][3] It continues Proto-Italic *rumpō and a nasal present Proto-Indo-European *Hru-n-p- (“to break”) of the root *Hrewp-.^[1][10] Its relatives include Sanskrit लुम्पति (lumpáti, “breaks”), Old English rēofan (“to break, tear”), Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (raupjan, “to pluck”) and Old High German roufen (“to tear out”).^[6][10][11] The past participle ruptus gave rotto and rotta, and the noun ruptūra gave rottura.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest record is the Judaeo-Italian Elegia of the 12th or 13th century, in the sense “to shatter”: “ke roppe mura e ’nfranzi porti” (“which broke walls and shattered gates”).^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Many uses were already Latin, such as breaking a truce, a delay or silence.^[5] In Old Italian the verb meant to violate an obligation (late 13th century, Novellino, Bono Giamboni before 1292), to interrupt (Dante, 1313–1319) and to break in pieces (Dante, 1300–1313), and in an Ancona text of 1397 to be shipwrecked.^[5][3] Dante's beast “che passa i monti e rompe i muri e l’armi” (“which crosses mountains and breaks walls and weapons”) shows the physical sense.^[4] Matteo Villani has si ruppe a piangere “burst into tears” before 1363, and Leonardo da Vinci the sense “to overflow” of a river.^[5]

Breaking off a friendship is recorded in the 14th century, though Tommaseo thought it rare and French-sounding in 1872.^[5] In familiar speech rompere alone means “to annoy”, short for vulgar phrases such as rompere le palle, and more politely rompere le scatole.^[1][12][13] Jocular compounds with rompi- followed: rompicollo (16th century), rompicapo “nuisance” (1640) and “puzzle”, rompiscatole (1869), and rompighiaccio “icebreaker” (1906), a calque of English ice-breaker or French brise-glace.^[5][6] Scholars disagree on whether the first element is an imperative.^[5]

Timeline

• 12th–13th century – The Elegia giudeo-italiana has roppe “broke”.^[5]
• 1264 – Roppimento “shipwreck” is recorded.^[3]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for breaking a pledge.^[5]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses it for “to interrupt”.^[5]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci uses it of a river overflowing.^[5]
• 1640 – Rompicapo “nuisance” is recorded.^[5]
• 1869 – Rompiscatole “pest” is recorded.^[5][6]
• 1906 – Rompighiaccio “icebreaker” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To break into pieces, to smash or split: Il bambino ha rotto il bicchiere.^[2][14][13]
2. (transitive) To fracture a bone: Cadendo dalla bici si è rotto un polso.^[2][14]
3. (transitive) To damage a device so that it no longer works: Ho rotto la lavatrice.^[2][13]
4. (transitive) To force a way through: La piena ha rotto l'argine.^[2][13][12]
5. (transitive, figurative) To break off a relationship or agreement, to violate a pact, to interrupt: Hanno rotto il fidanzamento.^[2][13]
6. (intransitive) Of a river, to overflow its banks.^[13][1]
7. (intransitive, colloquial) To annoy, to be a nuisance: Mi stai rompendo da un'ora.^[13][1][12]
8. (intransitive) To burst out in tears, laughter or words.^[13][1]

Word family

• rompicapo
• rompicollo
• rompighiaccio
• rompiscatole
• rompimento
• rompitore
• rotto
• rotta
• rottame
• rottamare

Related words

• corrompere
• rottura
• dirompere
• rupe
• Latin rumpō

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include rompere il ghiaccio “to break the ice”, rompere i ponti “to burn one's bridges”, rompere le righe “to fall out” (of soldiers) and the proverb chi rompe paga e i cocci sono suoi “whoever breaks it pays, and the pieces are his”.^[12][15][14] The past historic is ruppi and the past participle rotto.^[1][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3280
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana