scopare

Forms

scopare (first-person singular present scópo, first-person singular past historic scopài, past participle scopàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian forms include schopare and northern scovare and scoare.^[2] The GDLI also lists old scoppare.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin scōpō (“to sweep”), formed from scōpae (“twigs; broom”).^{[4][5][6][7][8][1][2]} The verb survives across the Romance languages: Sardinian iscobare, Old French escover, Spanish escobar and Portuguese escovar;^[9] Meyer-Lübke notes that it displaced Latin verrō (“to sweep”).^[9]

The Latin plural scōpae first meant the branches of a plant, tied together to make a broom.^[10][11] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *skōp-ā- and compares Ancient Greek σκᾶπος (skâpos, “stick”) and Latin scāpus (“stalk, shaft”), perhaps by ablaut of a root Proto-Indo-European *sk(e/o)h₂p-, though no such verbal root is attested and the words may be loans.^[11] Nocentini assigns scopa to the pre-Latin substrate, its first sense being a shrub, the heather used for brooms.^[5]

The sexual sense began in Rome: DELI and Nocentini call it a Romanesco word, found in a Florentine–Romanesco glossary of the late 17th century and in G. G. Belli in 1831.^[4][5][12] Nocentini compares metaphors such as “to dust off” and “to remove the rust”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Cremonese poet Uguccione da Lodi, early in the 13th century.^[2] In the oldest texts the verb means to beat with a whip or scourge, also as a public punishment in which the condemned was lashed along a route;^[2][4] DELI finds this use in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century.^[2][4] Boccaccio has a lady threatened that she will be scopata (flogged) if she makes any more noise.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to sweep” is recorded in the 14th century in a life of Saint Francis, who went about preaching and scopando le ecclesie (sweeping the churches).^[4][3][2] The TLIO also records a figurative sense, to scour a territory in search of something.^[2]

The sexual sense spread from Rome: Zingarelli entered it in 1922 as a Romanesco word, and scopata for intercourse was noted by Panzini in 1923 as slang of Rome.^[4] Treccani observes that because this sense now prevails, spazzare and similar verbs often replace scopare in the sense of sweeping.^[14] In curling the verb is used for sweeping the ice in front of the stone.^[3]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses the verb.^[2]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for beating with a broom or whip.^[4]
• 14th century – The sense “to sweep” appears in a life of Saint Francis.^[4][15]
• 1550 – Scopata is recorded for a blow with a broom.^[4]
• Late 17th century – The sexual sense appears in a Florentine–Romanesco glossary.^[4]
• 1831 – Belli writes scopà in Romanesco.^[4]
• 1922 – Zingarelli records the sexual sense as Romanesco.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sweep with a broom; also without an object: Prima di cena scopo la cucina.^[6][7][12]
2. (figurative, uncommon) To clear away, eat up everything: I ragazzi hanno scopato tutta la torta.^[7][12]
3. (vulgar) To have sex with someone; also intransitive, to have sex.^{[6][7][12][14]}
4. (historical) In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to flog publicly with a scourge of broom twigs; also to whip.^[6][7][16]
5. (sport) In curling, to sweep the ice in front of the stone.^[3]

Word family

• scopata
• scopatore
• scopatura

Related words

• scopa
• spazzare
• Latin scōpae
• Spanish escobar

Usage notes

Because of the vulgar sense, which Sabatini–Coletti calls Romanesco in origin, spazzare is often preferred for sweeping.^[14][12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 18, 198
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b 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 c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli