Spezzare

Spezzare is an Italian verb meaning to break, snap, or fracture, and it can be used both literally and figuratively. It is mainly transitive, taking a direct object: spezzare qualcosa such as una penna, una corda, or a leg, as well as abstract things like una promessa or il ritmo. The reflexive form spezzarsi exists to express that something breaks itself, or that someone is physically or figuratively broken by pressure or effort.

Etymology and sense expansion: The verb belongs to the same semantic family as spaccare (to crack) and shares the broader sense of breaking a thing into pieces. In everyday Italian, spezzare often conveys a more forcible or complete breaking than other verbs such as rompere, and it can cover both physical disruption and ruptures in non-physical domains, such as plans or relationships.

Grammar and usage notes: Spezzare is a first-conjugation verb (-are). It forms compound tenses with avere, and its past participle is spezzato. In present and other tenses, the verb shows some stem variation in certain forms, but it generally follows standard -are patterns. Common collocations include spezzare il pane, spezzare una catena, spezzare una promessa, or spezzare la resistenza. The derived noun spezzatura refers to the act or result of breaking.

See also: Rompere, frantumare, spezzettare, spezzato. The concept also yields related terms in cooking (spezzatino, meaning a dish prepared from meat cut into chunks) and in figurative language, where to spezzare means to disrupt or end a sequence, a plan, or an emotional state.