Etymologically
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spaventare

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Pronunciation

  • /spa.venˈta.re/[1]

Forms

spaventare (first-person singular present spavènto, first-person singular past historic spaventài, past participle spaventàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *expaventāre, an intensive of Latin expaveō (“to be terrified at”), which is formed from ex- and paveō (“to be frightened”).[2][3][4][5] Devoto and Wiktionary derive the Vulgar Latin verb from the present participle expavēns, with the ending of verbs such as -entāre.[6][1] The LEI accepts the Vulgar Latin form because so many early outcomes of it are found in the main Romance languages.[7]

Nocentini calls it panromance: French épouvanter, Occitan espantar, Catalan espantar, Spanish espantar, Portuguese espantar, Sardinian ispamentare and Romanian înspăimânta.[8][1] Old French had it about 1000, in the “Passion” of Clermont, and Old Occitan espaventar from 1160.[7] In the Iberian forms the second labial was lost by dissimilation, and in Romanian and Gallurese the consonants were assimilated to /m/–/n/.[9] Spanish espaventar (late 16th century) and Portuguese espaventar (1836) are later loans from Italian.[7] Within Italy the inherited forms have lost the initial vowel, and some southern ones voice the cluster, as in Sicilian sbantàrisi.[7]

Latin “paveō” is of uncertain origin: De Vaan's Proto-Italic *pawēō is perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *pow-, or it is a stative from the root Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“to strike”), which also gave Latin paviō (“to beat”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT's first record, from before 1250, is the sense “to deter, discourage”.[3] The LEI finds the verb in a Tuscan translation of Albertano da Brescia of 1268 and in Dante's Vita nuova (1292–1293);[7] DELI's earliest date is the reflexive “to take fright” in Bono Giamboni's Libro de' vizî e delle virtudi, before 1292.[2]

Semantic evolution

The transitive “to fill with fear” is in Dante, who died in 1321, and the weaker “to cause worry” in Petrarch, before 1374: “Il mal mi preme, e mi spaventa il peggio” (my trouble weighs on me, and the worse frightens me).[2][10] The old sense “to deter”, still in Dante's “non vi spaventi”, survives only in literary use.[3][11][12] Old Tuscan also had the form ispaventare, with a prosthetic vowel, in Boccaccio and the 1471 Bible translation.[7]

The family grew early: spavento “fright” is in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century, spaventoso and spaventevole in Giovanni Villani, and spaventacchio “scarecrow” from the 14th century, later replaced by spaventapasseri (before 1866 according to Nocentini, before 1908 according to DELI).[2][8][13]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – First record, in the sense “to deter”.[3]
  • 1268 – A Tuscan translation of Albertano da Brescia uses the verb.[7]
  • Before 1292 – The reflexive spaventarsi in Bono Giamboni.[2]
  • Late 13th century – Spavento “fright” in the Novellino.[2]
  • Before 1374 – Petrarch uses it for causing worry.[2]
  • 1836 – Portuguese borrows espaventar.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To frighten, scare: Il tuono ha spaventato il cane.[3][11][14][1]
  2. (transitive) To worry, make anxious: Mi spaventa il pensiero di dover ricominciare da capo.[3][14][4]
  3. (literary) To deter or discourage someone from something.[3][11][12]
  4. (spaventarsi) To take fright, be scared; to become alarmed: Non spaventarti, è solo il vento.[11][14][4]

Word family

  • spavento
  • spaventoso
  • spaventevole
  • spaventapasseri
  • spaventato
  • spaventacchio
  • spaventamento
  • spaventatore
  • paura
  • paventare
  • French épouvanter
  • Spanish espantar

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 22, 549
  8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse