spingere

Forms

spingere (first-person singular present spìngo, first-person singular past historic spìnsi, past participle spìnto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The old and regional form is spignere; poetry also has pingere, and older Italian pignere.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *expingere, formed with ex- on Latin pangō (“to drive in, fix”).^[4][5][6][1] The form with ⟨-ing-⟩ for ⟨-ang-⟩ follows the classical compounds impingō (“to drive against”) and compingō (“to fasten together”).^[1][7] The same word is Old French espeindre, Old Occitan espenher and Catalan espenyer, and Meyer-Lübke adds Dalmatian spangro and a Gardenese verb meaning “to shove”.^[5][8] DEI calls it Dalmatian and western pan-Romance.^[9]

The Latin verb is from Proto-Italic *pang- (“to attach”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to fasten”) with a nasal infix; Ancient Greek πήγνυμι (pḗgnumi, “to fix, join”) and pāx (“peace”) belong to the same root.^[10][5]

A different Latin expingō (“to paint”), from pingō (“to paint”), is the source of spegnere, with an older sense “to wipe out”.^[8][7][1] GRADIT points to it in its entry, and Meyer-Lübke explains that the Sienese form of that verb, taken into the written language, kept the two apart.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin spingere is recorded at Venice in 1290.^[4] The first Italian record is figurative: Guittone d'Arezzo (before 1294) uses the verb for “to urge, spur on”.^[4][11] The literal sense “to press on something so that it moves” is recorded in Iacopo Passavanti in 1354;^[4][5][6] Nocentini and GRADIT put the first record at the beginning of the 13th century.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Petrarch the verb is already both literal and figurative: love “drives and draws” the soul (Amor la spigne e tira), not by choice but by destiny.^[12] Manzoni has it for directing the gaze (spingeva lo sguardo in su, 1825–1827).^[4] The reflexive spingersi “to go forward, venture” is recorded from the 16th century, in Gelli and Annibal Caro, and “to dare, go so far as” from 1922; the intransitive “to push, jostle” appears in a dictionary of 1960.^[4]

The derivatives took their own paths: spinta “push” is in Medieval Latin at Todi in 1275 and later means “encouragement, backing”, spintarella became “a word in the right ear, string-pulling” in 1938, and spinto as an adjective came to mean “excessive” and “risqué” in the 19th century.^[4][5] Modern Italian also uses spingere for pressing a button or a pedal and for running a machine at full power.^[6][2] In music spingere l'arcata is to draw the bow upwards.^[11][13]

Timeline

• 1275 – Medieval Latin spinta “push” is recorded at Todi.^[4]
• 1290 – Medieval Latin spingere is recorded at Venice.^[4]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses spingere for “to urge on”.^[4][11]
• 1354 – Iacopo Passavanti uses it in the literal sense “to push”.^[4]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch has the participle spinto.^[4]
• 16th century – Respingere “to push back” is recorded.^[5]
• 1825–1827 – Manzoni writes of “pushing” one's gaze upwards in I promessi sposi.^[4]
• 1922 – The reflexive sense “to dare, go so far as” is recorded.^[4]
• 1965 – Spintonare “to shove” is recorded in football language.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To push, to press on something so that it moves: Abbiamo spinto la macchina fino al distributore.^{[6][2][14][1]}
2. (transitive) To press a control: spingere il pulsante dell'ascensore.^[6][2][14]
3. (transitive) To shove a person, to make them move, stumble or fall: Qualcuno l'ha spinto giù dalle scale.^[6][2][1]
4. (transitive) Of wind or water, to carry along in one direction.^[6][2]
5. (transitive) To stretch a part of the body forward or out; to direct the gaze far: spingere lo sguardo verso il mare.^[6][2][11]
6. (transitive, figurative) To urge, drive someone to do something: La curiosità lo spinse ad aprire la lettera.^{[6][14][11][15]}
7. (intransitive) To press against something; to jostle in a crowd: Non spingete, c'è posto per tutti.^[11][15][14]
8. (intransitive, figurative) To press hard for something: Il sindacato spinge per un nuovo contratto.^[11][15]
9. (reflexive, spingersi) To venture, go as far as; figuratively, to dare: Ci siamo spinti fino al rifugio.^[11][4]
10. (transitive, slang) To push drugs.^[1]

Word family

• sospingere
• spinta
• spintarella
• spinto
• spintonare
• spintone
• spintore
• spingitore
• controspinta
• respingere
• respinta

Related words

• spingersi
• spegnere
• impingere
• pace

Usage notes

An old verb spingere “to wipe off a painting”, the opposite of dipingere, is recorded in Giovanni Villani and Franco Sacchetti, of coats of arms that had to be painted over.^[12][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3593
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana