sospiro

Forms

sospiro m (plural sospiri, augmentative sospirone)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian sospire, Old Italian suspiro and Old Italian suspirio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Italian sospirare (“to sigh”), a noun formed from the verb.^[4][5][6][7] Zingarelli, Gabrielli, Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI trace it instead to Latin suspīrium (“a sigh”), itself formed from suspīrō (“to sigh”), and Wiktionary allows both.^{[3][8][9][2][1][10]} Battisti and Alessio compare Old Occitan sospire and French soupir.^[11] Meyer-Lübke derives the Old Occitan form from the Latin noun and the other Romance nouns, such as Sardinian suspiru, Occitan sospir and Catalan suspir, from the verb; for the French one he left both open.^[12]

The Latin verb is formed from spīrō (“to breathe”) with the prefix sub-.^[13][14][10] De Vaan thinks the verb may imitate the sound of breathing; it has no clear cognates.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, with the sense “sigh”: a deep, slow breath that betrays a troubled mind.^[13][4] The lover heaves a sigh at every step that leaves him in anguish (sì getto uno sospiro / che mi faci angosciare).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sigh became a fixed word of love poetry: Migliorini, quoted by DELI, notes that from Cino da Pistoia on the disiri, sospiri and martiri of the poets of the Dolce Stil Novo had turned into a conventional repertoire.^[13] Petrarca speaks of the sound “of those sighs on which I fed my heart”.^[7] L'ultimo sospiro, the last moment of life, is found in Cino before 1337, and the sense “breath” in a 14th-century Italian Seneca.^[13] In the 14th century the word could also mean distress.^[11]

In literary use from Chiabrera on, a sospiro is a light breath of wind;^[13][4] Leopardi called love the sospiro acerbo of later years, something longed for.^[13][4] The Ponte dei Sospiri in Venice took its name from the prisoners led across it to the inquisitors.^[7] In music sospiro was a short rest of a third or a quarter of a beat, from the 16th century;^[16][11] French and German borrowed it as a musical term in the 18th century.^[16][11] In central Italy it is also a meringue-like sweet, perhaps because it is eagerly longed for.^[11]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses sospiro.^[13]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses the adjective sospiroso “full of sighs”.^[13]
• Before 1337 – L'ultimo sospiro “the last moment of life” appears in Cino da Pistoia.^[13]
• 14th century – The sense “breath” appears in an Italian translation of Seneca.^[13]
• Before 1544 – Sospiro is recorded as a musical rest.^[16]
• Before 1638 – Chiabrera uses sospiro for a breath of wind.^[13]
• 1703 – French borrows sospiro as a musical term.^[16]
• 1732 – German Sospiro is recorded in music.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sigh: a deep, drawn-out, audible breath in and out that shows sadness, longing, relief or emotion: Chiuse il libro con un sospiro.^[4][5][3]
2. (figurative, literary) Someone or something longed for or regretted.^[4][5][3]
3. (literary) breath;^[4][3][17] dare l'ultimo sospiro “to breathe one's last, to die”.^[4][3][17]
4. (literary) A light breath of wind.^[4][3][9]
5. (cooking) A light, spongy little cake of egg white and sugar, often coated with chocolate.^[4][9][3]

Word family

• sospiroso
• sospirone
• sospiretto

Related words

• respiro
• Latin suspīrium
• French soupir

Usage notes

Tirare un sospiro di sollievo is “to breathe a sigh of relief”, and a sospiri means “a little at a time, at long intervals”.^[4][17][8]

References

1. ^ a b c 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, p. 19, 535
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3562
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
16. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
17. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana