spazzare

Forms

spazzare (first-person singular present spàzzo, first-person singular past historic spazzài, past participle spazzàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian spazare and Old Italian spassare.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin spatiāre, the active form of Latin spatiārī (“to walk about; to spread out”), from spatium (“space”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} Sabatini–Coletti and Treccani note that spaziare is the learned form of the same Latin verb, and Wiktionary calls it a doublet.^[7][8][1]

Nocentini, DEI and Prati derive it instead from Old Italian spazzo (“floor”), the popular outcome of the Latin noun, so that the verb first meant “to clear the floor”.^[9][10][11] The GDLI gives both views, and Meyer-Lübke lists the verb among the derivatives of the noun; he found a derivation from Vulgar Latin *impactiare hard to accept.^[2][12]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain.^[13] De Vaan considers a participle Proto-Indo-European *sph₁-to- (“prospered, fattened”), hence “extended”, possible but unproven, and finds a link with pateō (“to be open”) difficult;^[13][9] Nocentini places the word in the family of that verb, with an initial /s/ that comes and goes as in other Indo-European roots.^[13][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A man at Trento was nicknamed Spatzainferno (“sweep-hell”) in 1188, and Medieval Latin spazare is recorded at Parma in 1255.^[3] The first Italian record is Boccaccio's Decameron (1353), with the sense of cleaning a floor with a broom: a character recalls having made his servant spazzare la casa one Saturday afternoon.^[3][2] A record attributed to Giordano da Pisa cannot be checked.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From sweeping a floor the verb came to mean taking something away by sweeping (before 1588), and figuratively clearing a place of whatever is harmful or dangerous (1483, Luigi Pulci); GRADIT dates the sense “to wipe out” to the late 13th century.^[3][4] In 1669 Emanuele Tesauro used it for eating greedily.^[3] Military language used it for battering down defences and raking ground with fire.^[5][10]

The verb formed many compounds and derivatives: spazzatura “sweepings, rubbish” (Medieval Latin spazatura at Bologna in 1252, Italian in 1353), spazzacamino “chimney sweep” (late 15th century), spazzino “street sweeper” (1632) and spazzola “brush”, probably a blend of spatola with spazzare (spazzora about 1400).^[3] Spazzamine (1916) copies English mine-sweeper, and spazzaneve “snowplough” (1917–1927) also names the snowplough turn in skiing (1942).^[3] In football spazzare l'area is to clear the ball out of one's own penalty area.^[5][14]

Timeline

• 1188 – The nickname Spatzainferno is recorded at Trento.^[3]
• 1252 – Medieval Latin spazatura “sweepings” is recorded at Bologna.^[3]
• 1255 – Medieval Latin spazare is recorded at Parma.^[3]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses spazzare and spazzatura.^[3]
• 1483 – Luigi Pulci uses it for ridding a place of something harmful.^[3]
• Late 15th century – Spazzacamino appears in the carnival songs.^[3]
• 1632 – Spazzino is recorded in a Florentine document.^[3]
• 1669 – Emanuele Tesauro uses it for eating greedily.^[3]
• 1916 – Spazzamine “minesweeper” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sweep a floor or room clean with a broom; also without an object: dopo cena tocca a me spazzare.^{[4][15][7][1]}
2. To sweep up or away dirt, rubbish, snow and the like.^[4][15][5]
3. Of wind, waves and the like, to sweep over a place and carry off what is there: la bora spazzava il porto.^[15][14]
4. (figurative) To clear a place of something harmful; to wipe out, often spazzare via: l'alluvione ha spazzato via il ponte.^[4][15][7]
5. (figurative) To dispel doubts, prejudices and the like.^[4][5]
6. (colloquial) To eat greedily, to polish off.^[4][5][7]
7. (football) Spazzare l'area: to clear the ball out of one's own penalty area.^[5][14][6]

Word family

• spazzatura
• spazzino
• spazzola
• spazzacamino
• spazzaneve
• spazzamine
• spazzatrice
• spazzata
• spazzamare
• spazzolare
• spazzolino
• spazzolone

Related words

• spazio
• spaziare
• Latin spatium

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3581
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 936
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ 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