zufolare

Forms

zufolare (first-person singular present zùfolo, first-person singular past historic zufolài, past participle zufolàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian sufolare, Old Italian suffolare and Old Italian ciufolare.^[2][3][4] Dante has suffolerò “I will whistle”.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sūfilāre, a popular variant of Latin sībilō (“to hiss, whistle”).^[6][7][3][1] DELI and Sabatini–Coletti write the Vulgar Latin verb *sufolāre, an imitative variant of the rustic sifilāre, itself a form of the classical verb.^[8][9][10] Treccani and the GDLI call that form Oscan, with ⟨f⟩ for Latin ⟨b⟩.^[4][5] Devoto adds that the vowel before the labial was adapted to it, and that the family is of distant imitative origin.^[11] The initial ⟨z⟩ strengthens the ⟨s⟩ and is itself imitative.^[8][6][12]

Related forms are Sardinian sulare (“to blow”), Corsican zifulà, Venetian sifołar, Romansh tschüvler, Norman sûfflier, Walloon xhufler and Old French sufler.^[6][1][10] The Latin verb also gave the learned sibilare and the popular sobillare.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine vernacular Tesoro of the late 13th century, for the long shrill sound of snakes and other creatures with a forked tongue.^[2] DELI's first date, before 1342, is from D. Cavalca, for making a sound like that of a pipe.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb covered several shrill sounds: the hissing of snakes, the whine of an insect in flight, a whistle to call someone or to jeer, and, as zufolare nelle orecchie, the whispering of slander.^[2] The noun zufolo, a shepherd's pipe, is recorded from before 1470, and the verb's sense “to play the zufolo” is dated by DELI only to 1759.^[8]

Transitive zufolare, to whistle a tune softly, is dated to 1891.^[8] The figurative sense “to tell tales, blab” continues the old phrase about whispering in someone's ear.^[7][2] A Tuscan proverb, non si può bere e zufolare, says that two incompatible things cannot be done at once.^[13][4]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – the Florentine Tesoro uses the verb for the hissing of snakes.^[2]
• Before 1342 – D. Cavalca uses it for a sound like a pipe's.^[8]
• Before 1470 – L. Pulci uses the noun zufolo.^[8]
• 1759 – the sense “to play the zufolo” is recorded.^[8]
• 1891 – transitive zufolare, to whistle a tune, is recorded.^[8]
• 1939–1940 – zufolio appears in Palazzi.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To play the zufolo, a shepherd's pipe.^[7][3][1]
2. (intransitive) To make a sound like that of a pipe; of animals, to hiss, buzz or sing in a thin note: il merlo zufolava dalla siepe.^[7][3][4]
3. (ambitransitive) To whistle softly through half-closed lips; to whistle a tune: tornava a casa zufolando una canzone.^[7][3][9][1]
4. (uncommon) Of the ears, to ring or buzz.^[3][9][14]
5. (figurative) To report secretly or maliciously; to blab.^[7][3][14]

Word family

• zufolo
• zufolio
• zufolata
• zufolamento
• zufolatore
• inzufolare

Related words

• sibilare
• sobillare
• fischiare
• Latin sibilo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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)
5. ^ 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, 1106
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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1076
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli