sciampiare

Forms

sciampiare (first-person singular present sciàmpio, first-person singular past historic sciampiài, past participle sciampiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian sciampare, Old Italian isciampiare, Old Italian esciampiare and Old Italian sciempiare.^[2] A variant sciamprare is recorded in the 17th century, in Pantera's work on naval armament.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin examplāre (“to make wide”), formed with the prefix ex- on a verb from amplus (“wide, ample”).^[5][3][6][7] Zingarelli, Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli start from exampliāre, from ampliāre (“to enlarge”), and the TLIO follows Castellani in the same choice.^{[8][9][10][2]} The prefix is read as intensive.^[9][7]

Tommaseo explains the variant with ⟨r⟩ by comparison with Old Italian essempro beside esempio, from Latin exemplum.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine translation of Albertano da Brescia of 1275, and its first sense is to make wider, to enlarge.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb also meant to open wide, to stretch a bow, and, in the pronominal form, to spread out, to relax, or for the heart to open up and be well disposed.^[2] Dante uses it of an opinion that spreads beyond the truth: perché la stima oltre la veritade si sciampia.^[11][6] A Sienese statute orders a street to be widened and straightened with it.^[4]

DEI records a nautical sense, to spread a sail or a flag, and Pantera's sciamprare is to lower part of a ship's awning.^[3][4] The word is now obsolete.^[5][8]

Timeline

• 1275 – First record, in the Florentine translation of Albertano.^[2]
• 1342 – The statutes of Perugia use the verb.^[3]
• 17th century – Pantera has the variant sciamprare for a ship's awning.^[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To widen, enlarge, extend.^{[5][11][9][6]}
2. (obsolete, transitive) To stretch, draw tight.^[8]
3. (obsolete, pronominal, sciampiarsi) To widen, spread out; figuratively, to extend.^[11][8][10]

Related words

• ampio
• ampliare
• Latin amplus

References

1. ^ 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 e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3396
4. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ 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