salpare

Forms

salpare (first-person singular present sàlpo, first-person singular past historic salpài, past participle salpàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)^[1] The old form was Old Italian sarpare, used by Ariosto.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][5][6] The oldest record is Medieval Latin serpare, at Genoa in 1344, with serpari “to be ready to leave” there in 1335.^[2][3][7] The old Italian form was Old Italian sarpare.^[2][3][7]

For Nocentini and Devoto–Oli it is from Italian serpe (“snake”), through a verb asserpare formed with a-, “to coil like a snake”, said first of the anchor chain and then of the anchor.^[8][9] In Nocentini's view the Genoese form is the original one: the pretonic /e/ before /r/ opened to /a/ in the old Italian form, and /r/ became /l/ before a consonant, perhaps at Pisa, where this is regular.^[8] He finds support in the dialect of Lipari, where assarpari means “to haul up” the anchor, the net or the line.^[8] Prati also starts from the word for “snake”, which he takes in a nautical sense, the part of the prow where the anchor was stowed.^[4] The noun continues Latin serpēns (“snake”), the participle of serpō (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *serp- (“to creep”).^[10][11][1]

Other proposals start from Greek.^[2][8] Alessio reconstructed Vulgar Latin *exherpāre “to leave the harbour”, from a Greek verb meaning “to creep out, go away”.^[2][8] Alessio's earlier idea, followed by DEI and Zingarelli, was *exharpāre, from Ancient Greek ἐξαρπάζω (exarpázō, “to snatch away”), said of the anchor.^[3][12] Devoto, Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli bring it through Catalan anxarpar.^[13][14][15] Greive explained this form as a Latin formation with ex- from a verb meaning “to tear out”, and Alinei proposed *disalpāre “to leave the mountain pastures with the flocks at the end of summer”.^[2][7] DELI finds none of these persuasive, though the old forms with ⟨r⟩ point to a starting form *exarpāre.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT's first record, before 1470, is in Luca Pulci, who has a king who “had already weighed the anchors in the ship” (già nella nave i ferri avea sarpati).^[5][7] DELI and Zingarelli date the same author's sarpare before 1388.^[2][12] The sense was transitive: to raise the anchor from the sea bottom.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Ariosto still wrote sarpare: l'ancore sarpa, e fa girar la proda / verso ponente (he weighs the anchors and turns the prow westward).^[7][16] The form salpare is recorded in Serdonati in 1589.^[2]

The intransitive use, “to set sail”, is an ellipsis of salpare l'ancora.^[8] The figurative sense “to go away, leave” appears in Lippi, before 1665, and the plain intransitive sense “to leave the anchorage” in the Milanese press of 1806.^[2] Tommaseo also gives “to flee quickly”.^[16]

The word was borrowed into Catalan salpar and Modern Greek σαλπάρω (salpáro).^[1] Nocentini takes Spanish zarpar from Italian.^[8] DEI and the GDLI derive it, with Portuguese zarpar, from the Catalan form.^[8][3][7]

Timeline

• 1335 – Medieval Latin serpari is recorded at Genoa.^[3][7]
• 1344 – Medieval Latin serpare is recorded at Genoa.^[2][3]
• Before 1470 – Luca Pulci uses sarpare.^[5][7]
• 16th century – Ariosto uses sarpare.^[3][7]
• 1589 – Serdonati uses salpare.^[2]
• Before 1665 – Lippi uses sarpare for “to go away”.^[2]
• 1806 – The intransitive sense “to leave the anchorage” appears in the Milanese press.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, nautical) To weigh (anchor), to haul up a boat's moorings to get under way: salpare l'ancora.^[5][9][1]
2. (transitive) To haul up or recover a submerged object: salpare le nasse.^[5][9][6]
3. (transitive, fishing) To land a fish after catching it.^[5]
4. (transitive, slang) To pinch, steal.^[5]
5. (intransitive, nautical) Of a ship, to set sail, leave the anchorage: Il traghetto salpa da Livorno ogni sera.^[5][9][14]
6. (intransitive, figurative, humorous) Of a person, to leave, go off: I nostri amici sono salpati per la Grecia.^[5][9][17]

Word family

• salpamento
• risalpare

Related words

• serpe

Usage notes

Intransitive salpare takes essere, less often avere.^[17][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3321
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 868
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana