Etymologically
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sposare

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Pronunciation

  • /spoˈza.re/[1]

Forms

sposare (first-person singular present spòso, first-person singular past historic sposài, past participle sposàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old and literary forms are sponsare, spoxare and spozare.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin spōnsāre (“to betroth, marry”), an intensive of spondeō (“to pledge, promise”).[3][4][5][6][1] The GDLI derives it from spōnsus (“bridegroom”), the noun behind sposo.[2] DEI holds that the voiced ⟨s⟩ of the Italian word shows it came from the North, and Meyer-Lübke too gives the Italian verb as a northern form.[7][8] The same verb is French épouser, Old Occitan espozar, Catalan esposar, Spanish esposar, Portuguese esposar and Sardinian ispozare, and Old Italian also had disposare.[8][9]

De Vaan derives spondeō from Proto-Italic *spondeje/o- (“to libate many times”) and Proto-Indo-European *spond-eie/o- (“to libate”), so that the pledge was first a drink-offering; he compares Ancient Greek σπένδω (spéndō, “to pour a libation”) and Hittite išpant- (“to libate”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Cielo d'Alcamo's contrasto, before 1250, where one speaker asks to be taken to church and married before the people (sposami davanti da la ienti).[3][2][5] The sense is “to take as husband or wife”; in older Italian it could also mean to promise solemnly to marry, through the binding ceremony of betrothal.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Cavalca used the verb for giving a daughter or son in marriage, before 1342, and the reflexive sposarsi “to get married” is in Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–1353).[3] The sense “to perform the wedding”, of a priest or mayor, is dated by DELI to 1565.[3] Figurative uses followed: “to embrace (an idea, a cause)” in Paolo Sarpi, 1608–1619, and “to combine, join” in Magalotti, before 1712.[3]

The intransitive use, “to get married”, is recorded from 1581;[3][11] Panzini gave it in 1927 as Roman, and Zingarelli marks it Tuscan.[3][11] DEI notes that the word is used in almost every dialect, but Venetian, Trentino and Alpine Lombard prefer maritarsi, southern Tuscany and parts of Abruzzo pigliarsi, and Basilicata, Otranto and Calabria affidarsi.[7] In modern Italian si sposa bene is said of foods or colours that go well together, and sposare Gesù means to become a nun.[5][11][6]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – Cielo d'Alcamo uses sposare.[3]
  • Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for giving in marriage.[3]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses sposarsi.[3]
  • 1565 – A. Contarini uses it for performing a wedding.[3]
  • 1608–1619 – Paolo Sarpi uses it for embracing an idea.[3]
  • Before 1712 – Magalotti uses it for joining or mixing.[3]
  • 1581 – L. Pasqualigo uses it intransitively.[3]
  • 1927 – Panzini records the intransitive use in Rome.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To marry, to take as husband or wife: Ha sposato un compagno di università.[5][6][12]
  2. (transitive) To marry, to perform the wedding of: Li ha sposati il sindaco del paese.[5][6][11]
  3. (transitive) To give in marriage: Volevano sposare la figlia a un notaio.[5][6][11]
  4. (transitive, figurative) To embrace, espouse (an idea or cause).[5][6][12]
  5. (transitive, figurative) To join, combine: sposare l'utile al dilettevole.[5][6]
  6. (intransitive, Tuscan) To get married.[5][11]
  7. (pronominal) sposarsi: to get married; figuratively, of things, to go well together.[6][12][11]

Word family

Usage notes

Sposare l'utile al dilettevole is a set phrase, “to combine business with pleasure”.[5][6] A different Old Italian sposare, from ex- and posare, meant “to stop, lodge” and “to put down”: Dante writes al fondo che divora / Lucifero con Giuda ci sposò (he set us down at the bottom that devours Lucifer and Judas).[2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 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 h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3602
  8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse