svolare

Forms

svolare (first-person singular present svólo, first-person singular past historic svolài, past participle svolàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *exvolāre (“to fly out”), a popular form beside classical Latin ēvolāre (“to fly away”), made of ex- (“out, away”) and volō (“to fly”).^[2][3][4][1] Meyer-Lübke and Körting set up the same Vulgar Latin verb, meaning “to fly out”.^[5][6]

Most modern dictionaries see it instead as from Italian volare, formed in Italian with the prefix s- in its sense of moving away or of intensity.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The Vulgar Latin verb has outcomes elsewhere in Romance: Romanian zbura (“to fly”), Romansh svoler of the Engadine and Friulian svolâ.^[5][6][1] Its derivative svolazzare “to flutter” has a Genoese counterpart as well.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dictionaries date the first record to about 1340, in the sense “to fly away”.^[7][2] DEI places it in the 14th century.^[11] Tommaseo quotes an old Italian version of Palladius in which barley flour “flies off” the mill as it grinds, and notes that the verb was still alive in Venetian.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The verb never became common.^[7][13] The modern dictionaries label it literary or uncommon, with the senses “to fly away” and “to flutter about”.^{[7][8][9][13]} The GDLI defines it as rising into the air, flying here and there or making short flights, said of birds, insects and bats, and in paradoxical contexts even of a land animal or an object.^[4] Its quotations run from Beolco, who speaks of a flying donkey, through Berchet's swallow that “svola e garrisce in ciel” (flutters and twitters in the sky), to Pascoli, Pirandello and Montale, whose sparrows chatter as they “svolano” among the gutters.^[4]

Pascoli also used it figuratively, of hopes that wander in a dark sky.^[7][10] In some regions it is simply a synonym of volare.^[10][3]

Timeline

• Early 14th century – Dante uses the derivative svolazzare.^[11]
• c. 1340 – Svolare is first recorded.^[7][2]
• 18th century – The noun svolamento is recorded.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary, intransitive) To fly away.^[7][8][2][1]
2. (literary, intransitive) To flutter or flit here and there, to fly about: le farfalle svolavano tra i fiori del prato.^[7][8][9][1]
3. (regional) To fly, the same as volare.^[10][3]

Word family

• svolazzare
• svolamento
• svolo

Related words

• volare
• Latin volō

Usage notes

Svolare takes the auxiliary avere.^[8][9] Sabatini–Coletti notes that it is often followed by a phrase of place, and lists svolazzare as a synonym.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
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. 20, 635
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3687
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana