sferra
Italian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsfɛr.ra/
- Rhymes: -ɛrra
- Hyphenation: sfèr‧ra
Etymology 1
From Vulgar Latin *exferra. By surface analysis, deverbal from sferrare (“to unshoe (a horse)”) + -a. Compare Neapolitan sferra and Sicilian sferra.
Noun
sferra f (plural sferre)
- (farriery) exhausted horseshoe; the old horseshoe after it is removed from the hoof of a horse (Is there an English equivalent to this definition?)
- Hypernym: ferro (“horseshoe”)
- (by extension, archaic or regional) Various things which are old and worn out or with little value:
- old rusty knife or sword
- Hypernym: coltello (“knife”)
- 17th century, Silvio Fiorillo, “Scena Settima”, in La Lucilla costante:
- Ecco la vostra sferra vecchia, avetela con alcuno? Ditelo a me, che ne farò salciccie.
- Here's your old rusty sword. Are you mad with anyone? Tell me about it, and I'll make sausages of them.
- c. 1685, Federigo Nomi, chapter XIII, in Il catorcio d'Anghiari, stanza XV:
- Ognun portava l’asta ed il polvese, ¶ E al fianco senza fodero la sferra, […]
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- 19th century, Alessandro Manzoni, “Capitolo XIII”, in I promessi sposi, published 1825/1827:
- […] altri poi con pietre aguzze, con coltelli spuntati, con isferre, con chiodi, coll’ugne, se altro non vi era, scalcinavano e sgretolavano la muraglia […].
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- rag (tattered piece of clothing)
- Synonyms: cencio, straccio
- 1529, Pietro Aretino, “A messer Girolamo Agnelli”, in Il primo libro delle lettere:
- […] il signor loro gli pon la mano in su la spalla o gli dona una sferra de le sue cose vecchie.
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- piece of junk (item of little value)
- Synonym: cianfrusaglia
- good-for-nothing (worthless man)
- Synonym: buono a nulla
- old rusty knife or sword
- (regional, fishing) dredge (iron frame attached to a fine net when fishing molluscs)
- Coordinate term: rullo
Further reading
- sfèrra in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
- sferra in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti, Olivetti Media Communication
- Accademia della Crusca (p. 1961), “sfèrra”, in Grande dizionario della lingua italiana (in Italian), volume 18, page 864
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
sferra
- inflection of sferrare:
- third-person singular present indicative
- second-person singular imperative
Maltese
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian sferrare.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsfɛr.ra/
Verb
sferra (imperfect jisferra, past participle sferrat, verbal noun sferrar)
- to break loose
Conjugation
Conjugation of sferra | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular | plural | |||||||
1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person | 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person | |||
perfect | m | sferrajt | sferrajt | sferra | sferrajna | sferrajtu | sferraw | |
f | sferrat | |||||||
imperfect | m | nisferra | tisferra | jisferra | nisferraw | tisferraw | jisferraw | |
f | tisferra | |||||||
imperative | sferra | sferraw |
Related terms
- sferrakavalli
Neapolitan
Etymology
From Vulgar Latin *exferra. By surface analysis, sferrà (“to unshoe (a horse); to unshackle (a prisoner)”) + -a. For the semantic development, see Italian sferra.
Noun
sferra f (plural sferre)
- old rusty knife, especially if without handle
- (humorous, in the plural) fake large silver coins
References
- AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 980: “la lama del coltello” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
- Andreoli, Raffaele (1887), “sferra”, in Vocabolario napoletano-italiano (in Italian), page 646
Sicilian
Etymology
From Vulgar Latin *exferra. By surface analysis, sfirrari (“to unshoe (a horse)”) + -a. For clearer semantic evolution see Italian sferra, and compare Neapolitan sferra.
Noun
sferra f (plural sferri)
- (farriery) broken old exhausted horseshoe after it is taken from the hoof of the horse (Is there an English equivalent to this definition?)
- a knife without handle, especially if old
- c. 1786, Giovanni Meli, chapter I, in Don Chisciotti e Sanciu Panza, stanza 2:
- Nun vanta lu coraggiu, e l’arruganza, ¶ Nè vanta imprisi di la sua sfirricchia […].
- He doesn't boast of bravery or arrogance, nor about the feats of his small rusty knife.
-
- a bolt that secures the hoe blade to the handle
Derived terms
- sfirricchia
References
- Traina, Antonino (1868), “sferra”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, page 3823
- Pasqualino (c. 1790), “sferra”, in Vocabolario siciliano etimologico, italiano e latino (in Italian), volume 5, page 19