soffrire

Forms

soffrire (first-person singular present sòffro, first-person singular past historic soffrìi or (less common) soffèrsi, past participle soffèrto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also had sofferire, sofferere and sofferare, and the Sicilian poets wrote sofriri.^[2][3][4] The old past participle soffrito gave way to sofferto.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sufferīre, a Vulgar Latin form of Latin sufferre (“to bear, endure; to suffer”).^[6][7][4][1] The Latin verb is made of sub- (“under”) and ferō (“to carry”), so it first meant “to carry on oneself, hold up”.^[6][8][9] The root of ferō is Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”), as in Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō) and Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌰 (baíra).^[5] The verbs offrire and differire are formed in the same way.^[5]

The verb is found in all the Romance languages: French souffrir, Occitan sofrir, Catalan sufrir, Spanish sufrir and Romanian suferi.^[7][10] The Logudorese verb suffrire was taken from Italian.^[10][5]

The intransitive use “to be in pain, to suffer”, which Italian has from 1581, follows the French verb, which has it from 1530.^[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the first record to the end of the 12th century, in the old form sofriri.^[4] In the Sicilian poets the verb means to endure pains and torments, as in Rinaldo d'Aquino's a meglio m'è sofriri / le pene e li martiri (“it is better for me to suffer the pains and torments”), and DELI's first dated record is Guido Guinizelli, before 1276.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used soffrire for undergoing pain and also for bearing or tolerating something, a sense recorded in Bono Giamboni before 1292.^[6] Dante uses it for holding up a weight (e l'un sofferia l'altro con la spalla, “and one held up the other with his shoulder”) and for allowing something, and Boccaccio for waiting patiently; these senses are now obsolete or literary.^[12][9][13]

The intransitive “to be in pain” appears in Tasso in 1581, and soffrire di “to suffer from an illness” in a Milanese text of 1804;^[6] Tommaseo explains soffre di fegato, di cuore as being habitually subject to such complaints.^[6] Tommaseo also records the use for plants that wither in bad conditions.^[6] In the negative non poter soffrire it means “not to be able to stand” a person or thing.^[4][11]

The participle sofferto took on in the 20th century the sense of a work of art or thought that shows the inner suffering it came from (1960).^[6]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The old form sofriri is recorded.^[4]
• Before 1276 – Guido Guinizelli uses soffrire for enduring pain.^[6]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for bearing, tolerating.^[6]
• Before 1547 – Pietro Bembo uses the participle sofferito, sofferto follows in 1619.^[6]
• 1581 – Torquato Tasso uses the verb intransitively for being in pain.^[6]
• 1804 – Soffrire di an illness is recorded in a Milanese text.^[6]
• 1960 – Sofferto is recorded for art that reveals inner suffering.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To suffer, undergo pain, hardship or humiliation: Ha sofferto molte ingiustizie in quegli anni.^[4][8][12]
2. (transitive) To be troubled by a condition: to feel the heat, the cold, smoke, seasickness, or to get travel-sick in a car, ship or plane: Mia sorella soffre la nave.^[4][8]
3. (transitive, of plants or goods) To be damaged by unfavourable conditions.^[4][8]
4. (transitive, mostly negative) To bear, tolerate, stand: Non posso soffrire chi parla alle spalle.^[4][11][13]
5. (intransitive) To be in pain, physical or emotional: Si capiva che soffriva molto.^[11][12]
6. (intransitive) soffrire di: to suffer from an illness or disorder: soffrire di cuore, di emicrania.^[11][13]
7. (literary or obsolete) To allow, permit; to hold up, support; to wait.^[12][9][13]

Word family

• sofferente
• sofferenza
• sofferto
• insofferente
• insofferenza
• soffribile

Related words

• offrire
• differire
• French souffrir
• Latin sufferō

Usage notes

The proverb amore e signoria non soffron compagnia (love and power suffer no partner) keeps the sense “tolerate”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c 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
3. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3527
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli