serpe

Forms

serpe f (plural serpi)^[1] Old Italian also had serpa and serp, and an old plural serpe.^[2][3] In Elba the word became masculine, serpo.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *serpes (accusative *serpem), a form made from Latin serpēns (“snake”) and recorded as serps in Venantius Fortunatus.^[5][6][4][7] DELI, Sabatini–Coletti and Zingarelli derive it directly from the Latin nominative.^[8][9][10] The same shortened form gave Romanian șarpe, Occitan serp, Catalan serp, Spanish sierpe and Portuguese serpe, while the full form survives in serpente and French serpent.^[5][7][11]

The Latin noun is the present participle of Latin serpō (“to crawl, creep”), so the snake was “the creeper”.^[1][12][13] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *serp- (“to creep”), with cognates in Sanskrit सर्पति (sárpati, “crawls”), Sanskrit सर्प (sarpá, “snake”), Ancient Greek ἕρπω (hérpō, “to creep”) and Albanian gjarpër (“snake”).^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Tuscan poem of the Abate di Tivoli, about 1230–1250;^[2][8][3] DELI cites the Leggende dell'Exultet barberiniano of the 13th century, where Eve and Adam fall into sin by a temptation of the devil “facta ad modu de serpe” (made in the manner of a snake).^[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

From the first texts the snake was tied to evil, deceit and the devil who tempted Eve, and serpe was used for cruel or treacherous people.^[2] In Dante's Inferno the sinners have their hands tied behind them con serpi “with snakes”.^[3] Old Italian also called the house of the Visconti, whose arms show a serpent, la serpe, and named the constellation Serpens with it.^[2] The phrase scaldarsi la serpe in seno “to warm a snake in one's bosom” goes back to Aesop's fable of the farmer bitten by a frozen snake he had warmed.^[8][2]

DEI notes that the word is found in every dialect but is giving way to vipera and biscia.^[4] In standard Italian it is now the popular word for a snake of middling size, often a harmless one, beside the more general serpente.^[14][6] Derivatives include serpeggiare “to wind like a snake” (before 1494, Poliziano) and serparo, a snake catcher, an Abruzzese word that D'Annunzio spread in 1905.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1230–1250 – The Abate di Tivoli uses serpe.^[2]
• 13th century – The Leggende dell'Exultet barberiniano have serpe.^[8]
• Before 1494 – Poliziano uses serpeggiare.^[8]
• Before 1742 – serpaio, a place full of snakes, appears in G. B. Fagiuoli.^[8]
• 1905 – D'Annunzio uses serparo “snake catcher”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. snake, especially a non-venomous one of small or medium size: Sotto il sasso dormiva una serpe.^[6][9][14]
2. (figurative) A false, treacherous person: Non fidarti di lui, è una serpe.^[6][15][9]
3. (Rome) In serpe di mare: snake-shaped fishes of the family Ophichthidae.^[14][6]

Word family

• serpaio
• serpeggiare
• serpeggiante
• serpeggiamento
• serpigno
• serparo

Related words

• serpente
• Latin serpēns

Usage notes

Serpe is feminine; in literature and some regions it is also masculine.^[14][9] Set phrases are a serpe “winding, spiral”, allevarsi or scaldarsi una serpe in seno “to help someone who will turn against one”, and the proverb le cose lunghe diventan serpi, against letting matters drag on.^[15][14][10]

A separate word serpe, chiefly Tuscan, is a variant of serpa, the coachman's box seat of a carriage (recorded in 1805); DELI derives it from Latin scirpa (“basket set on a cart”), from Latin scirpus (“rush”).^[8][14][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 733
4. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3461
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier