spendere

Forms

spendere (first-person singular present spèndo, first-person singular past historic spési, past participle spéso, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian spendare and Old Italian ispendere.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin expendō (“to weigh out; to pay”), in a popular form that has lost its first vowel.^[2][5][6][7] The Latin verb is a compound of ex- and pendō (“to weigh; to pay”): money was weighed, not counted, in early payments.^[2][8][9][4] Meyer-Lübke placed the word instead under dispendō (“to distribute”).^[10]

The form without the first vowel is also Friulian spindi, Romansh spender and a minor Spanish form beside the regular Spanish expender.^[7][5] Learned forms are found in Spanish and Portuguese, and Old French espendre is recorded in Old French.^[7] The Latin verb spread into Germanic too, as English spend and German spenden; the German verb, which means only “to give alms”, probably took that sense from the language of the monasteries.^[7]

According to de Vaan, the Latin verb first meant to hang and later to weigh, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to spin”).^[11] The noun spesa comes from Late Latin expensa, the feminine past participle of the same verb.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI lists an Old Venetian spender from the last quarter of the 12th century, in the Proverbia que dicuntur.^[7] The first Tuscan record, spendare, is in the Breve di Montieri of 1219: questi mille soldi debia spendare lo signore (“the lord must spend these thousand soldi”).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb spread across the old north and Tuscany in the 13th and 14th centuries.^[7] Brunetto Latini praised as generous and wise the man che spende lo danaro (“who spends money”), and the Novellino tells how the young King of England spendea e donava tutto (“spent and gave away everything”).^[4] Dante extended it to using up time or strength.^[2] The intransitive “to go shopping” is recorded in Rigutini and Fanfani's dictionary of 1875.^[2]

The noun spesa is older than the first Tuscan record of the verb (Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250), and by 1231–1262 it also meant the household shopping.^[2] Spendereccio “free-spending” dates from the 14th century, spesare “to keep at one's expense” from 1503, and spendaccione “spendthrift” from 1891, after Venetian spendachion (1829).^[2]

Timeline

• Last quarter of the 12th century – Old Venetian spender appears in the Proverbia que dicuntur.^[7]
• 1219 – Spendare is recorded in the Breve di Montieri.^[2]
• 1231–1262 – Spesa is used for household shopping in a Sienese family's records.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses spendere for “to use up, employ”.^[2]
• 1503 – Spesare is recorded.^[2]
• 1875 – The intransitive “to shop” is recorded.^[2]
• 1891 – Spendaccione is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spend money: to pay it for goods or services: Ha speso metà dello stipendio in libri.^[6][8][9]
2. (absolute) To spend, to shop: In quel mercato si spende poco.^[6][12][8]
3. To squander one's own or others' money on luxuries.^[6]
4. To spend or pass time in some activity: Ho speso il pomeriggio a riordinare la cantina.^[6][9][12]
5. (figurative) To put words or a name to use in someone's favour: spendere una parola per qualcuno, spendere il nome di qualcuno.^[6][12][13]
6. (figurative) To devote energy, effort or resources to an aim.^[6][8][14]
7. spendersi: to give oneself, to work hard for someone or something.^[12][14]

Word family

• spesa
• spendaccione
• spendereccio
• spesare
• spesato
• spendibile
• spendibilità
• spenditore
• spendita
• rispendere

Related words

• pendere
• pesare
• Latin expendo
• English spend

Usage notes

Set phrases include spendere e spandere (to squander), spendere un occhio della testa (to spend a fortune) and the proverb chi più spende meno spende, that good quality saves money in the end.^[12][8][14] The nominalised infinitive lo spendere means expenditure.^[1] GDLI records a rare old spendere meaning “to take down something hung up”, from ex- and appendere.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 22, 678
8. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 808