spazio

Forms

spazio m (plural spazi)^[1] Old forms include spacio, spaccio and spaziu, and the plural was once also feminine, le spazia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin spatium (“room, extent; interval”).^[4][5][6][1] The same Latin noun was inherited as Old Italian spazzo (“floor”), a doublet, from which the verb spazzare “to sweep” was derived.^[7][8][1] Learned forms are French espace, the source of English space, and Spanish espacio.^[5][7]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain.^[9][1] DELI, Nocentini and Devoto connect it with pateō (“to be open”), with a prefixed ⟨s-⟩ as in other Indo-European roots.^[4][5][10] De Vaan finds this difficult, since the root of that verb has no variant with ⟨s-⟩, and mentions instead a possible derivation from Proto-Indo-European *sph₁-to- (“prospered; extended”), which cannot be confirmed.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Dino Compagni's Cronica (1310–1312), where spazio is a stretch of time; the sense “extent of place” is found in the translation of Crescenzi of about 1350.^[4] GRADIT dates the word to the 13th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for both distance and time: Dante has a thousand years as a shorter spazio to eternity than the blink of an eye, and Boccaccio writes in poco spazio di tempo.^[3] The philosophical and scientific sense, the boundless extent in which bodies exist, is recorded from Alessandro Piccolomini, before 1578.^[4] Technical uses followed: the gap between the lines of the musical staff (1556) and the blank between letters or words in printing (1583).^[4]

The sense “outer space”, the region beyond the Earth's atmosphere, is recorded from 1819;^[4] DELI quotes Klajn's view that the modern use of spazio and spaziale for the cosmos owes much to English (outer) space.^[4] Spazio vitale is a calque of German Lebensraum.^[4][11] In broadcasting and publishing spazio is the time or room given to a subject, and figuratively it means scope for action.^[6][12]

Timeline

• 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses spazio for a span of time.^[4]
• About 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses it for an extent of place.^[4]
• 1556 – Daniele Barbaro uses it for the space between the lines of a staff.^[4]
• Before 1578 – Alessandro Piccolomini uses it in the philosophical sense.^[4]
• 1583 – Leonardo Fioravanti uses it for a printer's space.^[4]
• 1819 – It is recorded for outer space.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (philosophy, physics) space, the boundless extent in which bodies are located: il rapporto tra spazio e tempo.^[6][12][11]
2. (mathematics) A set of points or other elements with geometric properties: spazio euclideo.^[6][13]
3. Outer space, where the heavenly bodies move: Il razzo ha portato tre astronauti nello spazio.^[6][12][11]
4. room, a limited area, empty or occupied: Nel bagagliaio non c'è più spazio.^{[6][12][14][1]}
5. A gap, an interval between things: Lascia uno spazio tra le due righe.^[6][14][15]
6. A period of time: nello spazio di una notte.^[6][12][14]
7. Room in a publication or broadcast given to a subject: Il giornale dedica molto spazio allo sport.^[6][12]
8. (figurative) scope, room for action: Non c'è spazio per gli errori.^[6][12][1]
9. (music) The gap between two lines of the staff.^[4][15]
10. (printing) The blank between letters or words.^[4][15]

Word family

• spaziale
• spaziare
• spazioso
• spaziatura
• spazieggiare
• spaziosità
• spazialità
• iperspazio
• sottospazio

Related words

• spazzare
• French espace
• Latin spatium

Usage notes

Fare spazio means to make room.^[6][14] The phrase durare lo spazio di un mattino (to last a single morning) is said of something short-lived.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org