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vampiro

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word vampiro

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1749, Giovanni Bergantini
Borrowed from
French vampire
Ultimate origin
Serbo-Croatian vampir
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
French vampire
English vampire
Italian vampiro

Pronunciation

  • /vamˈpi.ro/[1]

Forms

vampiro m (plural vampiri)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French vampire, recorded in French from 1746.[2][3][4][5][1] French took it from German Vampir, and German from Serbo-Croatian vampir, which Treccani and GRADIT gloss “one who rises from the grave”.[6][2][7][3][8] DELI notes that it is hard to say whether Italian took the Slavic word directly, through German or through French: D'Alberti in 1771 referred to a German superstition and name, but the first Italian record is in the title of a work translated from French.[5]

The further origin of the Slavic word is disputed.[5][9] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Slavic *ǫpyrь.[1] Nocentini traces it to a Turkic word brought to the Balkans by the early Bulgars, comparing Chuvash vupăr, a blood-sucking demon of Turkic folklore, from a root meaning “to swallow”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1749, in Giovanni Bergantini, for the spectre of popular belief that leaves its grave at night to suck the blood of the living.[5][2][3] Nocentini dates the word to 1741.[6] Bergantini's vampirismo was taken in 1746 from the Florentine Lezioni accademiche, which described the belief that the dead rose to suck the hearts of the living somewhere in Germany.[5]

Semantic evolution

The 18th-century word belonged to the learned debate about the vampire scares of central and eastern Europe: Giovanni Bottari cites Dom Calmet's treatise on apparitions and vampires, and Alberto Fortis reports that the Morlachs of Dalmatia believed in vampires as firmly as the people of Transylvania.[10][5]

In 1772 the Italian translation of Buffon's natural history named a blood-sucking American bat vampiro, after Buffon's French name.[5][8] In 1779 a newspaper used the word figuratively for usurers and speculators, a sense the dictionaries still give.[5][2][11] The 20th century added donna vampiro, a femme fatale, and slang for someone who uses another person's cordless or mobile phone line illicitly.[2][3][7]

Timeline

  • 1746 – French vampire is first recorded.[5][2]
  • 1749 – Giovanni Bergantini uses vampiro.[5][2]
  • 1756 – Vampirismo appears in the translation of Calmet.[5]
  • 1772 – The Italian Buffon applies the name to a bat.[5]
  • 1779 – Vampiro is used figuratively for a usurer.[5]
  • 1805 – The word is in D'Alberti's dictionary.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A vampire, in the folk belief of central and eastern Europe and in later fiction and film, a dead person who leaves the grave at night to feed on the blood of the living: un film di vampiri.[2][4][11]
  2. (figurative) A ruthless speculator or usurer, someone who bleeds others dry.[2][4][11]
  3. (zoology) A vampire bat, any of the blood-feeding bats of Central and South America; also a name of some American bats that do not feed on blood.[2][4][3]
  4. (slang) Someone who illicitly uses another person's cordless or mobile phone line.[2]

Word family

  • vampirismo
  • vampiresco
  • vampirizzare
  • vampira
  • vampireggiare
  • vampiressa
  • vampiristico
  • French vampire
  • Serbo-Croatian vampir

Usage notes

After a noun it is used as an invariable adjective: donna vampiro, a seductive woman, a vamp.[3][7][12] The feminine is vampira, rarely vampiressa.[3][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3984
  9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21
  11. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Vampiro.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/vampiro. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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