Etymologically
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spazio

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈspat.t͡sjo/[1]

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

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