Etymologically
Log in

sparo

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Italian word sparo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1653

Pronunciation

Forms

sparo m (plural spari)[1]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from sparare “to fire a gun”.[2][3][4][5] That verb is itself recorded from before 1470;[2] DELI follows Castellani in deriving it from the older sense of the verb, “to gut an animal”, as if firing a weapon emptied it of its insides, while Nocentini forms it from parare “to prepare” with a prefix s- of reversal and thinks it probably copies Spanish disparar, used of the crossbow from the early 15th century.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Zingarelli date the noun to 1653;[4][6] DELI's first record is in Lorenzo Magalotti in 1666, with the senses “the act of firing, the discharge of a firearm, and the noise it makes”.[2] The Saggi di naturali esperienze of the Accademia del Cimento (1666) measured the time from the sparo of a cannon to the return of its ball.[7]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo–Bellini records the noun for a volley fired by soldiers in ceremonies of mourning or celebration, and Fagiuoli's rare use for a shout.[7] The word also shares a spelling with an older sparo derived from the verb meaning “to cut open”: the opening at the front of a shirt or dress, and the dissection of a corpse.[8][7] Today sparo is the common word for a gunshot and its sound, and it appears in polvere da sparo, gunpowder.[4][5]

Timeline

  • Before 1470 – Luca Pulci uses sparare of a firearm.[2]
  • 1653 – First date of sparo in GRADIT and Zingarelli.[4][6]
  • 1666 – Magalotti uses sparo.[2]
  • 1927 – Sparatoria “exchange of gunfire” appears in Panzini's dictionary.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The firing of a firearm: il grilletto e il meccanismo di sparo.[4][6][9]
  2. A gunshot, the shot fired: La finestra era stata colpita da uno sparo.[4][5][10]
  3. The noise of a shot: Nel silenzio della notte si sentirono due spari.[4][5][6]

Usage notes

Polvere da sparo is gunpowder.[4][5] A different sparo is the name of a sea fish of the bream family (genus Sparus), from Latin sparus and Greek spáros, recorded in GRADIT from the 19th century.[4][3][11]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  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 e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19
  9. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  10. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
Cite this entry

“Sparo.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/sparo. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·