spirito

Forms

spirito m (plural spiriti)^[1] The syncopated spirto is archaic and poetic.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin spīritus (“breath; breath of life, soul; courage”), a learned word of the Church and of philosophy.^[5][6][7][8] The Latin noun is formed from spīrō (“to breathe, blow”) with the suffix -tus.^[9][1] Devoto explains that the inner vowel was not lost, as it is in the poetic form, because of the word's religious value.^[10]

The Latin word became a key word of Western culture when it was chosen to render Ancient Greek πνεῦμα (pneûma, “breath, spirit”), the highest, immaterial part of man as opposed to the body.^[6] As a Christian word it spread through all of Romance: Old French esperit, French esprit, Occitan esperit, Catalan esperit, Spanish espíritu and Portuguese espírito.^[11][6][7] The Insular Celtic languages borrowed it too, as in Old Irish spirut and Welsh ysbryd.^[7][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo's treatise of 1282, for the divine power that moves and orders the cosmos.^[5] Restoro asks who turns the heavens and answers: Conviene di necessità che sia spirito questo; diciamo noi che son angeli (“This must of necessity be spirit: we say they are angels”).^[12]

Semantic evolution

By the end of the 13th century spirito named a bodiless being, the soul opposed to the body and, in the old physiology of Guido Cavalcanti, the subtle fluids thought to carry the body's vital functions.^[5] Dante uses it for a disposition of mind, and Giovanni Villani for quickness of wit.^[5] In Old Italian it could also mean breath, the devil and courage.^[7][4]

The sense “alcohol” came from that of “exhalation”: the alchemists called the volatile part of a distilled liquid a spirit, and spirito di vino is recorded in 1644.^[5][6][7] Grammarians used spirito for the Greek breathing mark, after Greek pneûma, from the 16th century.^[5][7] The meaning “ghost” is recorded only in 1845.^[5]

Povero di spirito renders the Vulgate's pauperes spiritu (Matthew 5:3), a calque of Greek.^[5] Spiritismo and spiritista came from French spiritisme (1857) and spiritiste (1861).^[5]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses spirito for the divine spirit.^[5]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for a being without a body.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo opposes it to the body.^[5][8]
• Before 1300 – Guido Cavalcanti writes of the vital spirits.^[5]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for liveliness of mind.^[5]
• Before 1571 – Castelvetro uses it for the Greek breathing mark.^[5]
• 1644 – Spirito di vino “alcohol” is recorded.^[5]
• 1845 – The sense “ghost” is recorded.^[5]
• 1863 – Spiritismo appears in a book title.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. spirit, the immaterial principle of religious, moral and intellectual life, opposed to matter and to the body.^[8][2][13]
2. (philosophy) In Hegel and the idealists, reason or the idea as it realises itself in the world.^[8][2]
3. The individual soul: rendere lo spirito a Dio, to die.^[8][14]
4. A ghost, the spirit of a dead person: Dicono che nella villa si aggirino gli spiriti.^[8][13]
5. A supernatural being that dwells in or guards a place or a force of nature: gli spiriti del fiume.^[8][13]
6. State of mind, disposition: Ha accettato la notizia con spirito sereno.^[8][13]
7. The moral and intellectual qualities of a person, and a person who has them: uno spirito ribelle.^[8][13]
8. Quick wit, a sense of humour: una persona di spirito.^[8][1]
9. (chemistry) alcohol, especially ethyl alcohol: pesche sotto spirito.^[15][1][7]
10. (grammar) The breathing mark of Greek writing, rough or smooth.^[5][8]

Word family

• spiritare
• spiritato
• spiritello
• spiritico
• spiritismo
• spiritista
• spiritistico
• spiritosaggine
• spiritoso
• spirituale
• spiritualismo
• spiritualista
• spiritualità
• spiritualizzare
• spiritualizzazione

Related words

• spirare
• Latin spiritus
• French esprit

Usage notes

Spirito Santo is the Holy Spirit; other set phrases are spirito di corpo (esprit de corps), presenza di spirito (presence of mind), povero di spirito and sotto spirito (preserved in alcohol).^[8][1][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3595
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli