comperare

Comperare is an Italian verb meaning to buy. It is an archaic or literary variant of comprare and is mainly found in older texts, poetry, and some regional dialects. In contemporary standard Italian, comprare is overwhelmingly preferred, and comperare is used primarily for historical flavor or to evoke antiquity.

Usage and register: The form is documented in historical and literary contexts and appears occasionally in dialectal speech. When used today, it often signals formality, tradition, or a deliberate archaism. Because it is not part of standard modern usage, comperare is typically handled as a fossilized variant by learners and is of interest to philology and textual studies.

Conjugation and morphology: Comperare behaves as a regular -are verb. Its past participle is comperato, used with avere to form the passato prossimo (for example: ho comperato). The gerund is comperando. Other tenses follow the ordinary -are verb paradigm, mirroring the conjugation patterns of comprare.

Historical notes: The existence of comperare reflects historical variation in Italian spelling and pronunciation before standardization. It appears in certain classical and medieval or early modern texts and survives in some dialects or poetic uses as a stylistic alternative to comprare.

See also: comprare; Italian verbs; linguistic variation in Italian.