Etymologically
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vomitare

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Pronunciation

  • /vo.miˈta.re/[1]

Forms

vomitare (first-person singular present vòmito, first-person singular past historic vomitài, past participle vomitàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vomitō (“to vomit”), an intensive of vomō (“to vomit”).[2][3][4][5] Nocentini and Zingarelli treat it as a learned word, against the popular French vomir.[3][5] The Latin verb also lived on in popular forms: Tuscan gomitare, with northern and Friulian forms of the same type.[6][7] There was also Old Italian vomire from the simple verb, and Old Italian vomicare from Vulgar Latin *vomicō.[2][8]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *weme-, from Proto-Indo-European *wemh₁- (“to vomit”), with cognates in Sanskrit वमिति (vámiti), Ancient Greek ἐμέω (eméō) and Lithuanian vemti.[9][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the verb to before 1320, and DELI's first record is the Italian Crescenzi (about 1350), with the sense “to throw up the contents of the stomach”; the noun vomito appears in the same text.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Already in the 14th century the verb was used figuratively, as in Cavalca.[7] From the 17th century it is used for anything thrown out with violence: Paolo Segneri (1673) uses it in this sense, and a volcano or a gun can vomitare fire.[2][5] Figuratively one can vomitare insults and curses.[4][11]

Vomitare l'anima “to throw up one's soul”, to retch violently, is recorded in 1970, and replaced the older recere l'anima used from Boccaccio to Annibal Caro.[2] The colloquial fa vomitare says that something is disgusting or very bad.[4][11]

Timeline

  • Before 1320 – GRADIT's first date for vomitare.[4]
  • About 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses vomitare and vomito.[2]
  • 1673 – Paolo Segneri uses it for throwing out with violence.[2]
  • Before 1698 – Francesco Redi uses vomitativo and vomitatorio.[2]
  • 1970 – Zingarelli records vomitare l'anima.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To vomit, to throw up the contents of the stomach through the mouth: Dopo il giro sulla giostra il bambino ha vomitato.[4][11][12]
  2. (colloquial) In far vomitare, to be disgusting or very bad: Quel film fa vomitare.[4][11]
  3. To throw out with force, to spew: Il cratere vomitava cenere.[4][11][12]
  4. (figurative) To pour out insults or angry words.[4][11][12]

Word family

  • vomitativo
  • vomitatorio
  • vomito
  • vomitevole
  • vomitoso
  • vomitorio
  • rivomitare
  • vomitivo
  • emetico
  • Latin vomō
  • French vomir

Usage notes

Vomitare l'anima means to retch violently until the stomach is empty.[5][11] An old variant is vomicare.[11][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4090
  8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1064
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse