Etymologically
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superare

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Pronunciation

  • /su.peˈra.re/[1]

Forms

superare (first-person singular present sùpero, first-person singular past historic superài, past participle superàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin superō (“to be above; to overcome”), from superus (“upper, higher”), itself from super (“above”).[2][3][4] Wiktionary allows it to be an Italian formation from super- and -are as well.[1]

The popular outcome of the same Latin verb was Old Italian soprare, now obsolete: the inherited doublet of the learned verb.[1][5][6] The Latin word lives on elsewhere with changed meanings: Romanian supăra (“to annoy”), Old Occitan sobrar (“to outbid”), and Catalan sobrar, Spanish sobrar and Portuguese sobrar, “to be left over, to be superfluous”.[5][7] Nocentini notes that Spanish has the learned superar beside the inherited verb.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the chronicle of Giovanni Villani, who died in 1348, with the sense “to be greater than other people or things in size or quantity”.[2] Zingarelli dates the word to 1282.[8] The oldest quotations in the GDLI, from the Storie de Troia e de Roma, use it of defeating an enemy in war.[9]

Semantic evolution

The military sense “to defeat, to overcome in battle” runs through the GDLI's quotations from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.[9] Tommaseo glosses the word as “to win, to remain superior, to surpass”.[10]

The everyday senses of modern Italian are dated late by DELI: “to go beyond a given limit” (1811), “to be cleverer or more able than others” (1814) and “to come through a difficult or dangerous situation unharmed” (1826), all first found in Milanese printed texts, and “to overtake” (a vehicle or a rival) in 1922.[2] To pass an exam belongs to the last group.[11][4] DEI notes the sense “to win in an examination” from the 19th century.[6] The participle superato took on the sense “outdated, no longer valid” by 1940.[2]

Timeline

  • 1282 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.[8]
  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses superare for being greater in size or number.[2][4]
  • 1642 – Superabile “that can be overcome” is recorded in Galileo, who died that year.[2]
  • 1691 – Superamento appears in the third edition of the Crusca dictionary.[2]
  • 1811 – The sense “to go beyond a limit” is recorded.[2]
  • 1826 – The sense “to come through a difficulty unharmed” is recorded.[2]
  • 1922 – The sense “to overtake” is in the Zingarelli dictionary.[2]
  • 1940 – Superato “outdated” is recorded in Palazzi's dictionary.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To exceed someone or something in a measurable quantity: size, height, weight, number: La torre supera di dieci metri il campanile.[4][12][8]
  2. To go past a limit in space or time: Mia zia ha superato la sessantina.[4][12][13]
  3. To get over or across something; to cross an obstacle, a river or a pass, or cover a distance.[4][12][11]
  4. To overtake a vehicle or a rival moving in the same direction.[4][12][14]
  5. (figurative) To go beyond what is possible or fitting: Questo prezzo supera ogni limite.[4][12]
  6. (figurative) To surpass or outdo others in a quality or skill, superare sé stesso, to do better than ever before.[8][11][13]
  7. (figurative) To overcome a difficulty, come through an illness or a crisis, or pass an examination.[11][8][1]

Word family

  • superabile
  • superamento
  • superato
  • insuperabile

Usage notes

The old form soprare, marked obsolete in the dictionaries, is the popular development of the Latin verb.[8][14][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3678
  7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  8. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 527
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ 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
  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