sorbire

Forms

sorbire (first-person singular present sorbìsco, first-person singular past historic sorbìi, past participle sorbìto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sorbīre, with a change of conjugation from Latin sorbēre (“to swallow, suck up”).^{[2][1][3][4][5]} The same word is Romanian sorbi, Campidanese sorbire, Occitan sorbir, Catalan sorbir, Spanish sorber and Portuguese sorver.^[6][7][4] Italian sorso “sip” belongs to the same family;^[5][8] Körting traces it to a participle *sorpsus.^[5][8]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *sorfeie- and an iterative Proto-Indo-European *srobh-eie- (“to take various sips, slurp”).^[9] Cognates include Ancient Greek ῥοφέω (rhophéō, “to gulp”), Lithuanian surbti (“to suck”) and Hittite šarāp- (“to sip”).^[9][6] Nocentini gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *srebʰ-.^[6] De Vaan notes that the Latin vowel order ⟨sor-⟩ is not the expected outcome of a full grade of that root: it may come from a zero grade, or from the model of iteratives such as torqueō and mordeō.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are a 14th-century translation of Pietro Ispano and Cavalca (before 1342), in the sense of drinking slowly in sips; the Pietro Ispano text advises asafoetida data a sorbire col vino (“given to sip with wine”) at bedtime against a cough.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

In older Italian the verb also meant to absorb or swallow: Vasari observes that stone does not absorb (non sorbisce) as wood panel and canvas do.^[11][12][13] The figurative sense of putting up with tiresome people or things is first recorded in Metastasio (before 1782); today it is used mostly in the pronominal sorbirsi.^[2][14][15]

The present is sorbisco; the older sòrbo is rare.^[14][10] DEI records the adjectives sorbile (17th century) and sorbibile (18th century).^[4]

Timeline

• Before 1342 – Cavalca uses the verb.^[2][3]
• Before 1782 – Metastasio uses it figuratively, “to put up with”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sip, to drink slowly in small mouthfuls; also sorbirsi, with an intensive sense: sorbirsi un tè caldo.^[3][15][16]
2. To drink through a straw.^[15][14]
3. (figurative, colloquial, usually sorbirsi) To put up with someone or something tedious: mi sono sorbito tre ore di riunione.^[3][15][14]
4. (archaic) To absorb; to swallow.^[3][14][1]

Word family

• risorbire
• sorbevole
• sorbibile
• sorbile
• sorbirsi

Related words

• sorso
• assorbire
• Latin sorbeō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3555
5. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b c 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 477
11. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse