vipera

Forms

vipera f (plural vipere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīpera (“viper, snake”), which in Latin was also a term of abuse.^[2][3][4][1] The word is found across the Romance languages except Romanian: Old French guivre (French vipère is learned), Occitan vibra, Catalan vibra, Spanish víbora, Portuguese víbora and Logudorese pibera.^[3][5][6] In northern Italy the forms are learned, with an initial ⟨l⟩: Lombard lipera, Friulian lipere.^[6][5]

The usual explanation, going back to Pliny, takes vīpera for a contraction of *vīvipera, “bearing live young”, from vīvus (“alive”) and pariō (“to give birth”), because the viper was believed to hatch its eggs inside its body.^{[2][3][4][7][1]} De Vaan rejects this: the form would not contract regularly, and live birth does not set snakes apart; he prefers Proto-Italic *weip-es-ā-, from the root Proto-Indo-European *u̯ei̯p- “to swing, agitate”, as in vibrō (“to shake”).^[8] The medieval etymologists explained the name as “bearing by force” (vīs (“force”)), a view the GDLI rejects.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the poems of Giacomo da Lentini (c. 1230–1250), in the form vipra: se vipra ivi fusse (“if a viper were there”).^[10][9] DELI's first records are 14th-century translations, the San Gregorio volgarizzato, the Esopo volgarizzato and the Maestruzzo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, a venomous person who seizes every chance to hurt others, is in the 14th-century Bible translation.^[2] The TLIO adds the phrase lingua di vipere e di serpenti for a slanderer, and the viper of the Visconti arms in heraldry, which came to stand for the family itself.^[10] Dante calls it la vipera che Melanesi accampa.^[11]

The old form vipra was still used by Luigi Pulci.^[12] The adjective viperino is recorded in Florio (1598), and in the figurative sense in 1908.^[2] In the Venetian lagoon a vipera is a long, narrow rowing boat.^[4][13]

Timeline

• c. 1230–1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses vipra.^[10]
• 14th century – Old Italian translations of St Gregory and Aesop use vipera and vipra.^[2]
• 14th century – the Old Italian Bible uses it for a spiteful person.^[2]
• 1598 – Florio's dictionary records viperino.^[2]
• 1908 – Panzini records viperino in the sense “wicked, venomous”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A viper, a venomous snake with a triangular head, forked tongue and vertical pupils; in Italy especially the asp viper (Vipera aspis).^[4][14][13]
2. (zoology) Vipera, the genus of the viper family that contains these snakes.^[4][13]
3. (figurative) A spiteful, malicious or quick-tempered person: quel collega è una vipera;^[4][14][15] lingua di vipera, a backbiter.^[4][14][15]
4. A long, narrow rowing boat used in the Venetian lagoon.^[4][14][13]

Word family

• viperino
• inviperire
• viperaio
• viperetta
• antivipera
• viperide

Related words

• vivo
• viviparo
• Latin vīpera
• French vipère

Usage notes

Species names include vipera dal corno (Vipera ammodytes), vipera dell'Orsini and vipera soffiante, the puff adder.^[14][15] Nido di vipere is a nest of malicious people.^[16]

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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4062
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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. 21, 900
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1056
13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli