sospendere

Forms

sospendere (first-person singular present sospèndo, first-person singular past historic sospési, past participle sospéso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin suspendō (“to hang up, leave hanging”),^[2][3][4][1] formed from Latin sub- (“under”) + pendō (“to weigh; to hang”).^[2][3][5] The Italian prefix is sos-, the continuation of the Latin one.^[3] The past participle suspēnsus and the late derivative suspēnsiō gave sospeso and sospensione.^[2][3] The same verb is Old French souspendre, French suspendre, Occitan sospendre and Catalan sospendre; Spanish suspender and Portuguese suspender are learned.^[3][6]

De Vaan traces pendō to a Proto-Italic verb meaning “to hang”, which also came to mean “to weigh”; nearly all handbooks take the root as a variant of Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁- (“to spin”), through a shift from “to spin” to “to stretch a string” and “to leave hanging”, which he finds possible but not obvious.^[7] Latin already had suspendium (“hanging oneself”) in Plautus.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the verb to 1304–1308.^[4] DELI's first record is in Dante, before 1321, in metaphorical or slightly different senses.^[2] In Inferno XXVIII it means “to lift from the ground”: Poi che l'un piè per girsene sospese (“when he had raised one foot to go”).^[8][9][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to interrupt for a time” is recorded in 1332–1337 in the statute of the Calimala merchants,^[2] and in Giovanni Villani the verb also means “to keep pending, to defer”.^[6] In 1481 the Constitutions of Ferdinand II have the sense “to deprive someone of an office for a time, as a punishment”,^[2] a sense DEI dates only to the 19th century.^[6] In the 16th century Guicciardini used it for “to hang (a person)”.^[6]

The derivative sospensione followed the same path: suspensione “interruption” in the Ordinamenti di giustizia (1292–1324), the disciplinary penalty before 1396, a vehicle's suspension in 1844 and a chemical suspension in 1875.^[2] In chemistry the verb itself means to disperse a solid in a liquid without dissolving it,^[4][10] and canon law has sospendere a divinis, to forbid a priest to say Mass and perform his office.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 1304–1308 – First record, according to GRADIT.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses sospendere in metaphorical senses and for lifting a foot.^[2][8]
• 1292–1324 – Suspensione “interruption” appears in the Ordinamenti di giustizia.^[2]
• 1332–1337 – The sense “to interrupt for a time” appears in the Calimala statute.^[2]
• 1481 – The sense “to suspend from office” appears in the Constitutions of Ferdinand II.^[2]
• 16th century – Guicciardini uses it for hanging a person.^[6]
• 1844 – Sospensione is used of a vehicle's springing.^[2]
• 1875 – Sospensione is used in chemistry.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hang something up so that it does not touch the ground: Abbiamo sospeso le lanterne sopra il cortile.^[4][13][10]
2. (technical) To attach a body so that it can swing or turn about a point.^[4][13]
3. (literary) To lift, raise from the ground.^[4][13]
4. (figurative) To interrupt for a time; to postpone: Il concerto fu sospeso per la pioggia.^[4][13][10]
5. To stop a service, a payment or a treatment for a time: sospendere un volo, sospendere le corse notturne.^[4][11][14]
6. (figurative) To suspend someone from an office, a job or school, usually as a punishment;^[4][10][11] sospendere a divinis, to forbid a priest to exercise his ministry.^[4][10][11]
7. (chemistry) To disperse a solid in a liquid without dissolving it.^[4][10][14]
8. (rare, literary) To hang (a person).^[11][12]
9. (reflexive) sospendersi: to hang from something.^[14]

Word family

• sospeso
• sospendibile
• sospendimento
• sospenditore
• risospendere

Related words

• sospensione
• sospensivo
• sospensiva
• sospensorio
• pendere
• appendere
• Latin suspendo

Usage notes

It is conjugated like appendere: past historic sospesi, past participle sospeso.^[13][10][1] In ordinary language appendere is the usual verb for hanging an object;^[9] sospendere in that sense is literary or technical.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 416
6. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3561
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana