sposato

Forms

sposato (feminine sposata, masculine plural sposati, feminine plural sposate)^[1] An old form is Old Italian sponsato.^[2]

Etymology

It is the past participle of sposare (“to marry”), used as an adjective and as a noun.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The verb is recorded before 1250 in Cielo d'Alcamo and comes from Late Latin spōnsāre (“to betroth, promise in marriage”), an intensive of Latin spondeō (“to pledge, promise”).^[7][8][3] Meyer-Lübke lists the verb as a northern Italian form taken into the standard language; its cognates are French épouser, Old Occitan espozar, Catalan esposar, Spanish esposar and Portuguese esposar.^[9]

De Vaan explains spondeō as an old iterative “to pour libations again and again”, from which “to pledge” developed, and connects it with Ancient Greek σπένδω (spéndō, “to pour a libation”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tommaseo's first example is from Boccaccio's Decameron: “Se tu ardentemente ami Sofronia a me sposata, io non me ne maraviglio” (If you love Sofronia, who is married to me, so ardently, I do not wonder at it).^[11] Battaglia quotes Franco Sacchetti in the same sense: “O giovinetta, poi che se' sposata, / non mi dimenticar s'io t'ho amata” (Young girl, now that you are married, do not forget me if I loved you).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The participle was used as a noun early: the Old Italian Ritmo di sant'Alessio speaks of the wife left alone as la sposata, and Carducci still wrote that a Greek emperor “ripudiò la sposata” (repudiated his bride).^[2] In poetry it could also mean “joined, wedded” in a figurative sense, as in a verse of Tommaseo's in which the new Italian speech is “sposato ai numeri” (wedded to rhythm).^[11]

Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti date the modern adjective to 1838.^[4][5] It is the everyday word for “married”, less formal than coniugato, and is set against celibe for men and nubile for women.^[4][12]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – The verb sposare is recorded in Cielo d'Alcamo.^[7][3]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses the reflexive sposarsi and the participle sposata in the Decameron.^[7][11]
• Before 1838 – The adjective sposato “married” is dated by the modern dictionaries.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. married, bound by marriage: Mia sorella è sposata da vent'anni.^{[3][4][5][6][1]}

Noun

1. A married person: Al corso di ballo c'erano più sposati che single.^{[3][4][5][12]}

Related words

• sposare
• sposo
• sposa
• coniugato
• Latin spondeō

Usage notes

The feminine is sposata.^[1] Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti both illustrate the noun with the traditional football match between bachelors and married men.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 1019
3. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana