spurgare

Forms

spurgare (first-person singular present spùrgo, first-person singular past historic spurgài, past participle spurgàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian ispurgare and Old Italian spurghare.^[2] The GDLI records an old Old Italian sporgare.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin expūrgāre (“to clean out”), formed from ex- and pūrgō (“to purge”).^[4][5][6][1] The REW adds that it could also be a new formation in Romance.^[7] DEI traces the Latin verb back to the older pūrigāre of Plautus, from pūrus (“pure”).^[8]

The same Latin verb is Old Occitan espurgar and Old French espurgier.^[8] In Catalan esporgar means “to prune trees”, and in Aragonese the same form means “to fall off”, of unripe fruit.^[7] In southern Italian dialects it gives Tarantino spruiare, and DEI records an Istrian form meaning “to prune”.^[7][8] Before any Italian text, the form is found in the Medieval Latin of Piacenza in the 13th century.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine Esposizione del Pater of Zucchero, early in the 14th century, where the verb means “to free from a liquid” and in medicine “to drive harmful matter out of the body”.^[2] DELI gives Boccaccio, 1348–53, for the sense “to free or clean from what clogs or soils”, and Zingarelli dates it to before 1328.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

In the Decameron Boccaccio has a man clear his throat once or twice, spurgato s'era, before drinking his wine with such relish that the dead would want some.^[3][10] The reflexive spurgarsi “to cough up phlegm” has remained the commonest use since, from Lippi's king who si spurga e sputa to Verga.^[3] Old Italian also used it figuratively for purifying the soul from sin.^[2]

The noun spurgo, formed with no suffix, is recorded in Cristoforo Landino before 1498.^[4] Modern Italian uses the verb for clearing drains and canals, for preparing foods such as snails and sweetbreads before cooking, and less often for expurgating a book.^[6][11][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – Spurgare in the Medieval Latin of Piacenza.^[4]
• Early 14th century – First Italian record, in Zucchero's Esposizione del Pater.^[2]
• Before 1328 – Zingarelli's date for the verb.^[9]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it in the Decameron.^[4]
• Before 1498 – Cristoforo Landino uses the noun spurgo.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To clean a channel, pipe or passage of what blocks or fouls it: spurgare la grondaia.^{[6][11][9][1]}
2. To clear the airways by bringing up phlegm;^[6][11][13] (pronominal, spurgarsi) to expectorate.^[6][11][13]
3. (cooking) To prepare foods by removing impurities or inedible parts before cooking, such as snails or sweetbreads; also intransitive: lasciare spurgare le lumache.^{[6][11][12][1]}
4. (figurative, uncommon) To expurgate a book or show.^[6][11][14]
5. (intransitive) Of a wound, to discharge matter.^[14][8]
6. To bleed liquid from an engine or system.^[1]

Word family

• spurgo
• spurgatore
• spurgatura
• spurgamento
• spurgazione
• rispurgare

Related words

• purgare
• espurgare
• Latin expūrgō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ 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, 1072
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3607
9. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli