soffiare

Forms

soffiare (first-person singular present sóffio, first-person singular past historic soffiài, past participle soffiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian sofiare and Old Italian soppiare.^[2] The dialect form Venetian supiàr has /-pj-/ for /-fj-/.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sŭfflāre (“to blow, puff up”), formed from sub- (“under”) and flō (“to blow”).^[5][6][7][1] DEI calls it panromance.^[3]

The same verb is French souffler, Occitan soflar, Sardinian sulare, Romanian sufla and Old Spanish sollar;^[6][4][3] Romanian also made from it suflet (“soul”).^[6][4][3] Forms with /-pl-/ for /-fl-/, such as Spanish soplar, Portuguese soprar and the Venetian form, are unexplained;^[4][8][3] Meyer-Lübke rejects a reconstructed Latin source for them and thinks of a sound-imitative formation.^[4][8][3]

The simple verb may come from a PIE *bʰleh₁- (“to blow”), but de Vaan marks the root with a question mark.^[9] The GDLI calls the Latin verb expressive in origin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO’s first record is in Brunetto Latini’s Rettorica (c. 1260–61), from Florence.^[10] In Dante the verb means both “to push out breath with force” and, of winds, “to blow”: Allor soffiò il tronco forte “Then the trunk blew hard”.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb for snorting with anger or effort (Boccaccio, 1353), for the sound of a musical instrument, and for breathing life, the spirit or divine grace into someone;^[5][10] soffiare nel fuoco meant to stir up a quarrel.^[5][10]

From the 16th century it took on the sense “to whisper, tell in secret”, often with malice (Firenzuola, 1518–25), and in the 17th century “to inform, spy” (Lippi).^[5][3] In the game of draughts it means to take an opponent’s piece that failed to make a forced capture (1873), and, from there, figuratively, “to snatch what belongs to someone else”, as in soffiare il posto (1942).^[5] The derivatives followed the same lines: soffiata “tip-off” and soffiatore “informer” are recorded from 1960, and soffio became a medical term for a heart murmur in 1887.^[5]

Soffietto “bellows” and soffieria “blowing plant” are not Italian formations but adaptations of French soufflet and French soufflerie.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini uses soffiare in the Rettorica.^[10]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it of breath and of winds.^[5]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for snorting with anger.^[5]
• 1518–1525 – Firenzuola uses it for “to whisper maliciously”.^[5]
• Before 1665 – Lippi uses it for “to spy”.^[5]
• 1873 – The draughts sense is recorded.^[5]
• 1942 – Soffiare “to snatch” (a post, a girlfriend) is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To blow, push breath out through pursed lips: soffiare sulle candeline.^{[7][11][12][1]}
2. (intransitive) To pant or snort with effort, anger or impatience.^[7][12][1]
3. (intransitive) Of the wind, to blow: Da ieri soffia lo scirocco.^[7][13][12]
4. (intransitive) Of a cat, to hiss.^[14][1]
5. (transitive) To blow out (smoke, air) or blow away (dust); soffiarsi il naso, to blow one’s nose.^[7][12][13]
6. (transitive, glassmaking) To blow glass.^[12][15][1]
7. (transitive, figurative) To whisper, tell in secret, insinuate.^[7][12][1]
8. (slang) To inform, squeal to the police.^[12][15][1]
9. (draughts) To take an opponent’s piece that failed to make a forced capture.^[12][5][1]
10. (transitive, informal) To pinch, snatch: soffiare il posto a un collega.^[12][13][1]
11. soffiare sul fuoco (figurative): to stir up a quarrel or passions.^[7][12][14]

Word family

• soffio
• soffiata
• soffiatore
• soffione
• soffiatura
• soffiante
• soffiamento
• risoffiare

Related words

• fiato
• soffietto
• Latin sufflō
• French souffler

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3525
4. ^ a b c d e Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana