sputare

Forms

sputare (first-person singular present spùto, first-person singular past historic sputài, past participle sputàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian spuare and Old Italian spudare.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spūtō (“to spit out”), a frequentative of Latin spuō (“to spit”) formed on its past participle Latin spūtus.^[3][4][1][5] Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti derive the Latin verb from the noun Latin spūtum (“spittle”), which gave sputo.^[6][7][3] The same Latin verb is Old French espuer, Occitan espudar, Friulian spuda and Engadine spüder.^[4][8]

Latin spuō is an onomatopoeic word going back to Proto-Indo-European *sp(i)uH- “to spit”.^[9][4] Related words are Ancient Greek πτύω (ptúō), Lithuanian spjáuti, Old English spīwan and Old High German spīwan, whence German speien and English spew.^[9][4] De Vaan notes that the sound of such words, especially their beginning, was remade by imitation in each language.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the intransitive “to spit” in the Novellino of the late 13th century.^[3][4] The transitive “to expel from the mouth” follows in Giovanni Villani, before 1348.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Villani wrote of plague victims sputando sangue (spitting blood), and Boccaccio described people coughing with weeping eyes.^[2] From before 1470 Pulci used the verb for throwing something out with violence.^[3] Spitting at or on someone became the sign of deepest contempt, and sputare nel piatto in cui si mangia (to spit in the dish one eats from) is to show ingratitude to one's provider.^[5][6][10]

Other set phrases are sputare sangue, to toil hard, sputare il rospo, to come out with what one has kept back, sputare veleno, to speak with spite, and sputare sentenze, to pontificate, which gave sputasentenze in the 16th century.^[11][5][4] The participle sputato “the very image of” is recorded from the first half of the 16th century.^[4] The derivative sputacchiare “to spit often” dates from before 1342, and sputacchiera “spittoon” from Redi, before 1698.^[3]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Novellino has sputare “to spit”.^[3]
• Before 1342 – Sputacchiare is used by Domenico Cavalca.^[3]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses the verb transitively.^[3]
• Before 1470 – Pulci uses it for hurling something out.^[3]
• 16th century – Sputasentenze and the sense of sputato “identical” appear.^[4]
• Before 1698 – Redi uses sputacchiera.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To spit: to force saliva out of the mouth: È vietato sputare sulle scale della metropolitana.^[5][6][10]
2. (intransitive, figurative) To show deep contempt for someone or something: sputare su, sputare addosso or in faccia a qualcuno;^[5][6][10] sputare nel piatto in cui si mangia, to bite the hand that feeds one.^[5][6][10]
3. (transitive) To spit out something from the mouth: Il bambino sputò il nocciolo dell'oliva.^[5][7][11]
4. (transitive, figurative) To say something spitefully, or to reveal it: sputare veleno, sputare il rospo.^[5][11]
5. (transitive) By extension, to throw out with force: Il camino sputava fumo nero.^[5][7]

Word family

• sputacchiare
• sputacchio
• sputacchiera
• sputacchina
• sputasentenze
• sputato
• sputafuoco
• risputare

Related words

• sputo
• Latin spuō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli