zavorra

Forms

zavorra f (plural zavorre)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian saborra, Old Italian saorra, Old Italian savorra and Old Italian savorna.^[2][3][4] Venetian saorna and the verb saornare are recorded in 1255.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin saburra (“gravel; ballast”), and DELI notes that scholars agree on this.^[5][6][7][1] The old forms Old Italian saborra and saorra, the verb savornare and Venetian saorna confirm the descent.^[5]

The unexplained point is the initial /dz/ for Latin /s/.^[5][2] Corominas thought of a substrate pronunciation, Devoto of a Tuscan adaptation and Skok of assimilation to the following voiced /v/, while Battisti and Alessio call the sound relation unclear.^[5] Devoto held that the word reached Italian through northern dialects, Ligurian or Venetian, and that ⟨sa-⟩ was then wrongly corrected to ⟨za-⟩.^[8] Nocentini speaks of a strengthening of /s/ to /dz/.^[6]

The same word is Occitan saorra (“sand, gravel”) and Catalan sorra, older saorra, from which come Spanish zahorra and Portuguese saborra.^[6][9] Körting also gives Sardinian saurra.^[9] The Latin word seems to be connected with sabulum (“sand”) in its first part, with an ending of Etruscan transmission.^[5][10][11] De Vaan treats the word for sand as a substrate word.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Venetian saorna is recorded in 1255.^[4] The Italian word appears in Dante, figuratively, for the sinners of the seventh ditch of hell: Così vid'io la settima zavorra / mutare e trasmutare (“So I saw the seventh ballast change and change again”, Inferno 25.142).^[13][5][7]

Semantic evolution

The nautical sense, the heavy load laid low in a ship to keep it stable, is recorded before 1492 in Lorenzo de' Medici.^[5][14] Landino describes it as sand and gravel put in the bilge so that ships do not roll.^[13] Redi wrote of cranes that swallow stones to serve them as ballast against the wind.^[14]

The sandbags of balloons are called zavorra from 1837, and the word was used of a worthless person by 1879.^[5] Today the figurative sense covers both useless things and people who are only a dead weight to others.^[7][15] The verb zavorrare is recorded in 1598 in Florio, and zavorramento in 1937.^[5]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses zavorra figuratively in the Inferno.^[5][7]
• Before 1492 – Lorenzo de' Medici uses the word for ships' ballast.^[5]
• 1598 – Florio records zavorrare “to ballast”.^[5]
• 1837 – The word is used for the sandbags of balloons.^[5]
• 1879 – Tommaseo's dictionary records it for a person of little worth.^[5]
• 1937 – Zavorramento appears in a nautical dictionary.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) ballast: the solid or liquid weights loaded into a ship, permanently or for a time, to keep it stable.^[7][15][3]
2. (aeronautics) The sandbags or other weights carried by a balloon and dropped to gain height.^[7][15][3]
3. (figurative, derogatory) Useless, cumbersome things of little or no value; junk.^[7][15][3]
4. (figurative, derogatory) A person or people who are useless and only a dead weight to the others.^[7][15][3]

Word family

• zavorrare
• zavorramento
• inzavorrare

Related words

• sabbia
• saburra

Usage notes

A ship in zavorra sails with ballast only, carrying no cargo or passengers.^[15][2] The z is voiced, /dz/.^[16][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
3. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1069
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ 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, 1061
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti