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smorzare

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word smorzare

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1315 More words from the 14th century
Ultimate origin
Latin mors

Pronunciation

  • /zmorˈt͡sa.re/[1]

Forms

smorzare (first-person singular present smòrzo, first-person singular past historic smorzài, past participle smorzàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old forms include Old Italian asmorzare, and old dialect texts have smorciare.[2]

Etymology

It is from Italian ammorzare (“to put out”) with the prefix s- in place of ⟨a(d)-⟩.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] ammorzare goes back to a Vulgar Latin *admortiāre (“to put out, damp”), formed from Latin mors (“death”).[3][4][10] Meyer-Lübke notes that the verb is mainly Lombard, Emilian and of the Marche, beside the area of the Latin word that gave attutare, which may have influenced it.[10]

DEI, Treccani, Sabatini–Coletti and Wiktionary instead start from a Vulgar Latin *exmortiāre, from mortuus (“dead”) with intensive ex-.[11][12][13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT, Nocentini and Zingarelli date the verb before 1315.[5][4][7] DELI's earliest record is Dante, before 1321, who uses it of quenching a passion or feeling.[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to put out a fire or light” is recorded in Boiardo before 1494, and so is the reflexive “to go out”.[3] Ariosto writes that no human skill could perhaps have put out the fire before God sent rain.[2] In Florence it meant to dim a lamp, and one said spegnere when it went out.[14] Lime is slaked with the same verb.[14][7]

Lorenzo de' Medici uses it for “deaden, lessen”, and G. B. Doni, before 1647, of sounds.[3] The noun smorzatore became the damper of a piano, described in a dictionary of sacred and secular music of 1820.[3] Tennis took smorzata, a drop shot, in 1963, and physics uses the verb for damping oscillations.[3][7][8] Today smorzare “to switch off” is regional, central Italian.[6][13][7]

Timeline

  • Before 1315 – First record.[5][4]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses the verb of a passion.[3]
  • Before 1492 – Lorenzo de' Medici uses it for “deaden, lessen”.[3]
  • Before 1494 – Boiardo uses it for “put out” and smorzarsi “go out”.[3]
  • Before 1647 – G. B. Doni uses it of sounds.[3]
  • 1820 – Smorzatore is described as the damper of a stringed instrument.[3]
  • 1963 – Smorzata is recorded as a tennis stroke.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To lessen the force or intensity of something, to attenuate: of a flame, a sound or a light: abbassò le tende per smorzare il sole.[5][6][13]
  2. (transitive) To tone down a colour.[5][6][7]
  3. (transitive, figurative) To quench hunger or thirst, to curb a feeling: smorzare l’entusiasmo dei tifosi.[5][6][7]
  4. (transitive, figurative) To soften or sweeten bad news or a criticism.[5][6]
  5. (transitive, regional) To put out a fire or switch off a light: smorza la candela, è tardi.[5][6][13][7]
  6. (transitive) To slake lime: smorzare la calce.[5][7]
  7. (transitive, sport) To take the pace off a ball, as with a smorzata in tennis or a bunt in baseball.[5][6][1]
  8. (transitive, physics) To damp an oscillation or vibration.[7][8][13]
  9. (pronominal) smorzarsi: to fade, die down, or go out.[7][6][13]

Word family

  • smorzamento
  • smorzata
  • smorzatore
  • smorzatura
  • rismorzare
  • smorzando
  • smorzato

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 189
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3519
  12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  13. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
Cite this entry

“Smorzare.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/smorzare. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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