singhiozzare

Forms

singhiozzare (first-person singular present singhiózzo, first-person singular past historic singhiozzài, past participle singhiozzàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and regional forms include Old Italian singhiozzire, Old Italian singozzare, Old Italian signozzare, Old Italian sangiozare and Old Italian senghiogare.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *singluttiāre, a reshaping of Late Latin singultiāre or Latin singultāre (“to hiccup, sob”) under the influence of gluttīre (“to swallow”).^[5][6][1][7] The Late Latin verb is found in glosses and is formed from singultus (“sob, hiccup”).^[2][8][9] Some sources describe the change from ⟨singult-⟩ to ⟨singlutt-⟩ as a metathesis.^[10][9][4] Prati explains the old form singozzare by the influence of gozzo (“crop, throat”).^[11]

Nocentini traces the Romance verbs to three variants.^[6] The first gave the Italian word and Friulian sanglozzà.^[6][8][2] A form without the ⟨-i-⟩ gave French sangloter, Occitan sanglotar and Catalan sanglotar, and *suggluttiāre gave Spanish sollozar, Portuguese soluçar, Romanian sughița and Sicilian suggiuzzari.^[6][8][2][1]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain.^[12][1] Leumann proposed an old verb of sound, and the root has been compared with Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”).^[12] Wiktionary calls the origin unknown.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the 14th-century Italian version of Seneca's letters, in the sense “to hiccup”: whoever coughs, sneezes or singhiozza will not escape a beating.^[5][3] DEI has the variant singhiozzire in Bencivenni in 1310.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to sob, cry with sobs” is recorded before 1342 in D. Cavalca, and Petrarch's Uomini illustri has a man begging singhiozzando for his brother's life.^[5][3] The noun singhiozzo is older in Italian than the verb: its plural for “sobs” is in the 13th-century Sconfitta di Monteaperto, and the sense “hiccup” is in the Crescenzi translation about 1350.^[5]

The figurative sense “to move by fits and starts”, said of an engine or a car, is recorded in 1960.^[5] Literary Italian also uses the verb for the gurgling sound of water, as when D'Annunzio writes of a fountain that singhiozza in the silence.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – The plural singhiozzi “sobs” is recorded.^[5]
• 1310 – Bencivenni has singhiozzire.^[2]
• 14th century – The Seneca translation uses singhiozzare “to hiccup”.^[5]
• Before 1342 – D. Cavalca uses it for “to sob”.^[5]
• 1960 – The sense “to move in jerks” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To have the hiccups, to hiccup: Dopo la cena ha singhiozzato per mezz'ora.^{[13][14][10][15]}
2. To sob, to cry convulsively: La bambina singhiozzava sul letto.^{[13][14][10][15]}
3. (figurative) To move forward in jerks, with difficulty (of an engine or vehicle): Il furgone saliva singhiozzando.^[13][14][15]
4. (literary) Of water or a fountain, to make a gurgling sound.^[13]

Word family

• singhiozzo
• singhiozzio
• singhiozzamento

Related words

• singulto
• inghiottire
• Latin singultus
• French sangloter

Usage notes

The verb is intransitive and takes avere.^[14][15] The present participle singhiozzante is also an adjective.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3505
3. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 920
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. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana