sovrapporre

Forms

sovrapporre (first-person singular present sovrappóngo, first-person singular past historic sovrappósi, past participle sovrappósto or sovrappòsto, first-person singular imperfect sovrapponévo, auxiliary avére)^[1] Older and less common forms are soprapporre and the old Old Italian sopraporre.^[2][3] Tommaseo also records an old Old Italian sorporre.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian sovra- + porre, on the model of Latin superpōnō (“to place over”).^[5][6][7][2] GRADIT also treats it as an Italian derivative and only compares the Latin verb.^[8] Other dictionaries take it straight from the Latin verb, refashioned after the Italian prefix and verb,^[9][10] and Devoto describes it as a cross between the Latin and the Italian forms.^[11] Wiktionary simply derives it from Latin.^[1]

The Latin verb is formed from super (“above”) and pōnō (“to put”).^[9][2] Tommaseo notes the Latin verb and superimpōnō in Celsus and Columella.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, before 1321, is Dante's reflexive soprapporsi, “to place oneself above”.^[5][8][7] Treccani reads Dante's line Al segno d'i mortal si soprappuose (“it rose above the measure of mortals”) as the old sense “to go beyond, surpass”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

About 1340 the Italian version of Palladius used soprapporre for “to put before, prefer”.^[5] The concrete transitive sense “to put one thing on top of another” is recorded as sopraponere before 1460 in Savonarola's De regimine and in the form sovrapporre before 1595 in Tasso.^[5] The GDLI quotes the Italian Livy on statues placed on top of arches, and Savonarola's recipe telling the reader to lay a warm woollen cloth over the stomach.^[12]

In geometry it came to mean bringing one figure onto another to prove them equal, a use Tommaseo illustrates from Galileo.^[4][7] The reflexive sense “to be added to what was already there” is dated to D'Annunzio, before 1938.^[5] The participle soprapposto is in Boccaccio, and sovrapposizione in Galileo.^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses the reflexive soprapporsi.^[5][8]
• c. 1340 – Soprapporre “to prefer” in the Italian Palladius.^[5]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses the participle soprapposto.^[5]
• Before 1460 – Sopraponere “to place on top” in Savonarola's De regimine.^[5]
• Before 1595 – Tasso uses the form sovrapporre.^[5]
• Before 1642 – Galileo uses sovrapposizione.^[5]
• Before 1938 – D'Annunzio uses the reflexive in the sense “to be added on”.^[5]
• 1965 – Sovrapponibile is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put one thing on top of another, usually so that the two coincide or fit together exactly: sovrapporre due fogli di carta.^[8][10][7]
2. (mathematics) To bring one figure onto the place of another; to superimpose.^[7][1]
3. (figurative) To rank one thing above another, to put first; to make one thing prevail over another: sovrapporre il proprio comodo al dovere.^[8][10][9]
4. (figurative) To add on, to impose new ideas or customs over older ones.^[8][2]
5. (reflexive, sovrapporsi) To lie on top of something else, to coincide with it; to overlap in time or space.^[10][13]
6. (reflexive, figurative) To be added to what was already there: nuovi guai si sono sovrapposti ai vecchi.^[10][7][9]
7. (obsolete) To surpass.^[7][9][2]

Word family

• sovrapposizione
• sovrapposto
• sovrapponibile
• sovrapponimento

Related words

• porre
• sovra-
• Latin superpōnō

Usage notes

It is conjugated like porre (sovrappongo, sovrapposi, sovrapposto), and the second object takes the preposition a.^[10][13][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 640
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana