sparso

Forms

sparso (feminine sparsa, masculine plural sparsi, feminine plural sparse)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sparsus (“scattered”), the participle of spargō (“to scatter, strew”).^[2][1][3] In Italian it is the past participle of the verb spargere “to scatter”, used as an adjective.^[4][5][6][7] Old Italian also had a participle Old Italian sparto, which DELI records earlier and which survives as a poetic variant.^[4][8]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *sparg-, from Proto-Indo-European *sp(e)r-g- (“to strew”); de Vaan rejects the old comparison with words for crackling and hissing in Sanskrit and Greek.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the sense “not gathered together, loose, scattered” to Brunetto Latini (before 1294) in the form sparto, and to Petrarch (before 1374) in the form sparso.^[4] Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti date the adjective to the 13th century.^[10][5][6] Dante has sparso only once, for “suffused” (di livore sparso, “suffused with envy”, Purgatorio XIV 84), and sparto everywhere else.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Petrarch called his poems rime sparse (“scattered rhymes”), and the phrase still names verse written over time and collected later.^[11][5] In the older language the word was also used of loose hair, of spilt blood and of bodies or things strewn on the ground, as the quotations in GDLI show from Petrarch and Sannazaro on.^[12][13]

Botany has used it since 1809 for leaves set in no regular order, a synonym of alterno.^[4][11] The military ordine sparso, a formation in which soldiers keep irregular intervals to offer a smaller target, gave the everyday in ordine sparso, “in no particular order, each on his own”.^[5][11][14] An old noun sparso “bleeding, loss of blood” is recorded in GDLI.^[12]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses the form sparto “scattered”.^[4]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch uses sparso.^[4]
• 15th century – DEI records an obsolete sparso “vanished”, from sparire.^[2]
• 1809 – Tinelli uses sparso in botany.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. scattered, set here and there with no regular spacing: Sulla scrivania c'erano fogli sparsi ovunque.^[5][6][11]
2. Not brought together into a whole: rime sparse, poems collected after being written separately.^[15][5][11]
3. Of hair, loose, not tied up.^[5][11][14]
4. Of a liquid, spilt.^[6][14]
5. (literary) Strewn or suffused with something: Aveva le guance sparse di lacrime.^[15][5][7]
6. (botany) Alternate, set in no apparent order.^[15][8][11]
7. (military) In ordine sparso, a formation with irregular gaps between men;^[5][11][14] (figurative) in ordine sparso, in no particular order, without coordination.^[5][11][14]

Word family

• sparsamente

Related words

• spargere
• cosparso
• sparpagliare
• Latin sparsus

Usage notes

Sparto is the poetic and old form of the word.^[8][14][13] DEI also lists an obsolete sparso of the 15th century meaning “vanished”, a strong past participle of sparire.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
8. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e f Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET