spremere

Forms

spremere (first-person singular present sprèmo, first-person singular past historic spremétti or (traditional) spremètti or spreméi, past participle spremùto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian forms include spriemere and ispriemere, with the diphthong of priemere, and spremmere.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *exprĕmere, a popular remaking of Latin exprĭmere (“to press out”) on the model of the simple verb premō (“to press”).^[5][6][7][4] In classical Latin the ⟨e⟩ of the simple verb had become ⟨i⟩ in the unstressed open syllable of the compound; the Vulgar Latin form restored it.^[8][7]

The word is pan-Romance: French épreindre (now obsolete), Occitan espremer, Catalan espremer, Portuguese espremer, which in Portuguese also means “to press grapes”, and Romanian screme “to strain”, with a changed beginning.^[6][9] The Latin verb is formed from ex- (“out”) and the simple verb, which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *pres-; its further origin is uncertain.^[10][11]

The learned borrowing of the same Latin verb is esprimere “to express”, a sense the popular verb also had in older Italian.^[5][1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Zucchero's Santà, a Florentine text of 1310, in the sense of pressing a body to make liquid, gas or another substance come out of it.^[2] GRADIT dates it before 1313, and DELI's first date is about 1350, in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi.^[12][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb for wringing out the moisture of something, for squeezing a liquid out, and figuratively for oppressing a person.^[2] A Florentine text tells the nurse first to squeeze the breast before suckling (Si conviene ispriemere la mamella).^[4] The sense of extorting money is dated from 1662–1664, in a record of dispatches.^[5] In older usage, as in San Bernardino, spremere could still mean “to express”: non si può spremere colla lingua (“one cannot express it with the tongue”).^[7][13]

Modern figurative phrases are spremersi il cervello or le meningi “to rack one's brains” and spremere le lacrime “to make people cry”.^[12][14][7] The derivatives name the tools and drinks of squeezing: spremitura (1567–1573), spremifrutta and spremilimoni (1886), spremitoio (1891), spremiagrumi (1960) and spremuta, the drink of freshly squeezed juice (1922 in DELI, 1899 in Nocentini).^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1310 – Spremere appears in Zucchero's Florentine Santà.^[2]
• About 1350 – The Italian translation of Crescenzi uses the verb.^[5]
• 1567–1573 – Spremitura is recorded in the Ricettario fiorentino.^[5]
• 1662–1664 – The sense “to make someone pay out money” is recorded.^[5]
• 1886 – Spremifrutta and spremilimoni are recorded.^[5]
• 1899 – Spremuta is first recorded, according to Nocentini.^[6]
• 1960 – Spremiagrumi is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To squeeze or press something hard to get out the liquid it holds: spremere due arance per la colazione.^[12][14][15]
2. To extract a liquid by squeezing: spremere il succo da un pompelmo.^[12][14][15]
3. (figurative) To force someone to pay out money again and again; to bleed someone dry: lo stato spreme i contribuenti.^[12][14][13]
4. (figurative) To exploit someone as much as possible, especially by overworking them.^[12][14][15]
5. (literary, archaic) To express or show, especially with a look or the face.^[12][13][7]

Word family

• spremuta
• spremitura
• spremiagrumi
• spremilimoni
• spremifrutta
• spremitoio
• spremitore

Related words

• premere
• esprimere
• Latin exprimō

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like premere: past historic spremei or spremetti.^[14][15] Reflexive spremersi is used figuratively for straining oneself, as in spremersi le meningi.^[14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 942
4. ^ 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, 1031
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 422
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse