Sputato

Sputato is the past participle of the Italian verb sputare, which means to spit or to eject saliva, liquid, or other matter from the mouth. In ordinary usage, sputato is seen in compound tenses formed with the auxiliary avere, as in ho sputato, hai sputato, ha sputato, abbiamo sputato, avete sputato, hanno sputato. It can also function as an adjective describing something that has been spit out or expelled.

Etymology and form: sputato derives from the Latin stem spūt-, related to spūta or spūta, meaning spittle. The participle pattern follows the standard Italian formation for verbs of this class, producing a masculine singular form sputato and feminine singular sputata, with plural forms sputati (masc.) and sputate (fem.) when used as adjectives or in agreement with a subject or noun.

Usage in vocabulary: The noun sputo refers to spit or sputum—the material coughed up from the respiratory tract. In many contexts, especially medical or clinical ones, sputo is the preferred term for the bodily material, whereas sputato remains the verb-derived form used in past tenses. The past participle is thus more common in grammatical constructions than as a stand-alone descriptor in everyday speech.

See also: sputare, sputo, sputum.