sapone

Forms

sapone m (plural saponi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian savone, Old Italian savon, Old Italian sapon and Old Italian sapune.^[2] Savone survives in the north.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sāpō, which the Romans used for a mixture of tallow and ash for dyeing the hair.^[4][5][6][1] Latin also had sapōnārius (“soap-maker”) and Late Latin sapōnāta (“soapy water”), beside Italian saponaio and saponata.^[4][7]

The word is panromance: French savon, Occitan sabó, Catalan sabó, Spanish jabón, Portuguese sabão, Sardinian sabone and Romanian săpun.^[5][8] DEI thinks the Spanish form may have come through Arabic.^[7]

The Latin word is a loan from Proto-Germanic *saipǭ, which DELI and Treccani say reached Latin through Gaul.^[1][5][4][9] In Germanic it named a mixture of tallow and ash used above all by men to clean and dye their hair; the same word gave Old High German seifa, German Seife, Old English sāpe and English soap, and Nocentini puts it beside Latin sēbum (“tallow”).^[5] Devoto and Devoto–Oli call the Latin word Gaulish or Celtic, and Zingarelli and the GDLI leave the choice between Celtic and Germanic open.^{[10][3][11][12]}

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is savone in the Anonimo veronese, in the first half of the 13th century;^[4][6] sapone follows in a statute of 1310–1313.^[4][6] The TLIO's first record is a Sienese translation of Egidio Romano of 1288.^[2] The Old Italian sense is soap, the cleaning and degreasing product, which armies also spread on surfaces to make them slippery.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio's Decameron has Salabaetto washed con sapone moscoleato e con garofanato, soap scented with musk and clove.^[13] Soap-making gave early derivatives: saponaio and saponata in the 14th century, and saponeria before 1347 in Pegolotti.^[4]

Saponetto was a toilet soap in Ariosto (1508); saponetta is recorded from 1669, beside Piedmontese savonetta in 1564, and probably took over under the influence of French savonnette (1579).^[4][14] Saponetta also named a flat pocket watch (1908), after French montre à savonnette.^[4][5] Saponata meant flattery before 1742, and in chemistry saponificazione is recorded in 1829.^[4]

Fixed phrases include bolla di sapone (a soap bubble, and anything that comes to nothing) and acqua e sapone, said of a simple, natural person.^[11][15][16] Hungarian borrowed the word as szappan.^[1]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Latin sapo is documented.^[1]
• First half of the 13th century – Savone appears in the Anonimo veronese.^[4]
• 1288 – A Sienese translation of Egidio Romano has the word.^[2]
• 1310–1313 – The form sapone is recorded.^[4]
• Before 1347 – Saponeria appears in Pegolotti.^[4]
• 1508 – Ariosto uses saponetto.^[4]
• 1669 – Saponetta is recorded.^[4]
• 1829 – Saponificazione is recorded.^[4]
• 1908 – Saponetta is recorded as “pocket watch”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. soap: a cleaning product in bars, flakes, powder or liquid, for personal or household use: sapone di Marsiglia, household soap;^{[6][3][17][11][1]} sapone da barba, shaving soap.^{[6][3][17][11][1]}
2. (chemistry) Any alkali salt of a fatty acid, obtained by saponifying animal or vegetable fats.^[6][3][9]
3. A bar of soap: Mi passi il sapone?^[6][17][11]
4. (chemistry) A salt of a fatty acid with a metal other than the alkali metals: sapone di ferro.^[6][3]

Word family

• saponaceo
• saponaio
• saponaria
• saponata
• saponeria
• saponetta
• saponiera
• saponificare
• saponificazione
• saponificio
• saponina
• saponoso
• insaponare

Related words

• sego
• Latin sapo
• French savon
• English soap

Usage notes

Tommaseo and the GDLI record a separate Tuscan sapone “know-all”, an ironic word formed from sapere with -one;^[13][18][6] GRADIT marks it obsolete and dates it before 1832.^[13][18][6] The proverb perdere il ranno e il sapone means to waste time and effort.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3337
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 386
11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 557
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 872
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 558