spesa

Forms

spesa f (plural spese)^[1] Old northern forms include Old Italian spexe (plural, Genoa), Old Italian spexa (Bologna) and Old Italian spisa (Milan).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin expēnsa (“(money) spent”), short for a phrase with pecūnia (“money”): the feminine past participle of Latin expendō (“to weigh out, pay”), used as a noun.^[3][4][5][6] Classical Latin already used the noun for a sum of money.^[2] The Italian form shows the popular development of ⟨ns⟩ to ⟨s⟩ and the loss of the initial vowel; such popular continuations are rare elsewhere in Romance, among them Friulian spese and Old French espoise.^[2][1] Compare also Sicilian spisa, Venetian spexa and Piedmontese spèisa.^[1]

In the language of monasteries the Latin word came to mean “provisions, food”, and in that sense it passed into Old High German spīsa, today German Speise.^[2][7] The LEI leaves open whether the Italian sense “food, provisions” was taken back from German or grew up the same way in Italy.^[2]

The Latin verb is pendō (“to weigh, pay”) with ex-; its sense developed from “to hang” to “to weigh out” and then “to pay”.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Ricordi di una famiglia senese (1231–1262), for buying, in particular the daily buying of food for a household.^[3] The sense “expense, money spent” is in Giacomo da Lentini (before 1250), who mocks anyone who thinks he can spend “d'altrui borsa”, from another man's purse.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Northern texts have the word early: Bologna about 1243 and Chioggia in 1275, and Dante uses it for public or private expenditure in the Convivio (1304–1307).^[2] The phrase alle spese di is in the Novellino and a spese di in Boccaccio, who also uses it for “to one's own cost”.^[3] Later come spesare, to keep someone at one's expense (1503), and stare sulle spese, to live away from home at one's own cost (before 1742).^[3]

In everyday modern Italian fare la spesa is to do the grocery shopping, and la spesa is also the shopping itself.^[5][9] Economics speaks of spesa pubblica, public expenditure,^[10][11] and a proverb says è più la spesa che l'impresa, the effort is not worth the result.^[10][11] German borrowed the plural from Italian merchants as Spesen, “expenses” (from 1423–1424).^[12]

Timeline

• 1231–1262 – Spesa “purchase” appears in the Ricordi di una famiglia senese.^[3]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses it for “expense”.^[3]
• c. 1243 – The form spesa is recorded at Bologna.^[2]
• 1304–1307 – Dante uses it in the Convivio.^[2]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses a spese di.^[3]
• 1423–1424 – German Spesen is first recorded.^[12]
• 1503 – Spesare is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1742 – Stare sulle spese is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. expense, expenditure; the money spent on something: La spesa per il viaggio è stata più alta del previsto.^[9][5][13]
2. A purchase: Quella lavatrice è stata una spesa sensata.^[9][5][13]
3. The shopping for food and household needs: Il sabato faccio la spesa al mercato.^[9][5][13]
4. The groceries bought: Mi aiuti a portare su la spesa?^[9][5][1]
5. (plural) Costs, charges: Le spese di trasporto sono comprese.^[5][13]
6. (figurative) The use of time, effort or resources.^[9]

Word family

• spesare
• spesato

Related words

• spendere
• Latin expensa
• German Speise

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include a spese di, at someone's expense (also figuratively, to someone's cost), fare le spese di, to pay for something in the sense of suffering its consequences, and non badare a spese, to spare no expense.^[9][10][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 720
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3587
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli