soffolcere

Forms

soffolcere (first-person singular present soffólco, first-person singular past historic soffólsi, past participle soffólto, no imperfect, no future, no subjunctive, no imperfect subjunctive, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and literary variants are soffolgere, suffolcere and suffulcere.^[2][3] The verb is defective, used only in the present indicative, the past historic and the past participle soffolto or suffolto.^[4][5][2]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin suffulciō (“to prop up from below”), moved from the fourth conjugation to the second.^[6][3][7] Wiktionary treats it as inherited.^[1] That verb is formed from Latin sub- (“under”) + fulciō (“to support”).^[7][4][5][8]

De Vaan finds the origin of fulciō unclear: it is often compared with Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “beam”) and Old High German balko (“beam”), perhaps from a root Proto-Indo-European *bʰelg-.^[8] The TLIO refers to the Enciclopedia dantesca for other explanations of Dante's verb, and for its sense of rolling up, some have thought of a blend with avvolgere.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in Dante's Commedia, both pronominal: in the Inferno Virgil asks perché la vista tua pur si soffolge / là giù tra l'ombre triste smozzicate? (“why does your gaze still rest down there among the sad mangled shades?”), and the Paradiso has Oh quanta è l'ubertà che si soffolce / in quelle arche ricchissime (“how great is the plenty stored in those richest coffers”).^[9][10] The sense is to settle in a place, to rest on something.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Dante's early commentators glossed the verb differently: Jacopo della Lana as “is stored”, Francesco da Buti as “is fixed” for the gaze, others as “leans” or “fastens”.^[9][10]

Later the transitive sense “to support, hold up” prevailed in literary language.^[3][2] Ariosto uses it of the thief who propped a saddle on four poles, and of columns that held up jewelled ceilings, and it was later used for structures that support a building.^[3][10] The participle suffulto or soffolto, “leaning on”, appears in Vincenzo Monti and Carducci.^[2] Tommaseo–Bellini already marked the verb as obsolete, and modern dictionaries call it archaic and literary.^[10][7][4]

Timeline

• Before 1313 – First record of the verb.^[7]
• Before 1321 – Dante's Commedia has si soffolge and si soffolce.^[9]
• 1324–1328 – Jacopo della Lana glosses Dante's soffolce.^[9]
• 1385–1395 – Francesco da Buti glosses si soffolge as “is fixed”.^[9]
• 1861 – Tommaseo–Bellini marks the verb as obsolete.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic, literary) To support, prop up, hold up: due travi soffolcono il tetto.^[7][4][5][6]
2. (archaic, pronominal) To rest, settle, lean on something; of the gaze, to dwell or fix on something.^[9][4][6]

Related words

• fulcro
• folcire
• Latin fulcio

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
3. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 264
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ 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
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET