abbrustolire

Forms

abbrustolire (first-person singular present abbrustolìsco, first-person singular past historic abbrustolìi, past participle abbrustolìto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli treat it with brustolare and derive the group from Italian brusare, the northern counterpart of bruciare, through an intermediate brustare.^[3][4] Nocentini notes that the chronology does not settle the question, since the longer verb is recorded at Venice in 1424 and the shorter one at Genoa only around 1500.^[3] He rejects Vulgar Latin *brustulāre, whose main support was French brûler: the French verb has a separate history, from Latin ustulō (“to scorch, burn”).^[3][5]

Others keep the Latin reconstruction.^[6][1] Gabrielli derives the verb from *brustulāre, and Wiktionary adds that the initial ⟨br⟩ may be Germanic (compare Lombardic *bruojan and Old High German bruoen (“to scorch, burn”)), or that the verb is a contraction of an older apperustolare, from ad, per and ustulō.^[6][1] GRADIT suggests a Latin *abbrustulāre with a change of conjugation.^[7] Sabatini–Coletti and Treccani see a blend of abbruciare with ustus (“burnt”), the past participle of ūrō (“to burn”).^[8][9] DELI groups it with abbrustiare and abbrusticare, perhaps also with bruciare, and names ustus as a possible base, but finds the history impossible to reconstruct.^[2] It reports Migliorini and Duro's Latin *bustulare, taken from *combustolare and crossed with brusta (“ember”), a word of Gothic origin.^[2] Devoto proposed a Latin *ambustulare from amburō (“to scorch”), crossed with the prefix a-.^[10] The REW lists Old Italian abbrustiare (“to singe lightly”) among the outcomes of ustulō.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from Francesco Redi, before 1698, in the sense “to toast, scorch at the fire”.^[2][7] Tommaseo quotes a letter of Redi on a kind of wax that does not melt at the candle but s'abbrustolisce come la midolla del pane “toasts like the crumb of bread”.^[11] Zingarelli dates the verb before 1665, Nocentini to 1725.^[12][3]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo defined it as putting things to the fire so that they dry and brown without burning or cooking, and quoted Soderini on toasting rosemary leaves between hot pans.^[11] A note to the Malmantile that he quotes gives the narrower sense of singeing plucked birds to burn off the remaining feathers, and Treccani still lists it.^[11][13] Tommaseo also gives the variants abbrostolire, abbrustolare and abbrostolare.^[11] DELI dates abbrustolimento to 1855.^[2]

Today the verb is used for toasting bread, coffee, nuts or maize, and, jokingly, for lying in the sun to get a tan.^{[7][8][4][12]}

Timeline

• 1424 – Brustolare is recorded at Venice.^[3]
• c. 1500 – Brustare is recorded at Genoa.^[3]
• Before 1665 – Zingarelli's date for abbrustolire.^[12]
• Before 1698 – Francesco Redi uses it for toasting at the fire.^[2][7]
• 1855 – Abbrustolimento is recorded in Fanfani's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To toast or roast something over a flame or in an oven, browning it without burning it: abbrustolire le castagne.^{[7][8][12][13]}
2. (transitive) To singe plucked birds.^[13][11]
3. (pronominal) abbrustolirsi: to get slightly burnt on the surface.^[8][4]
4. (pronominal, figurative, jocular) To lie in the sun for a long time to get a tan.^[4][8][12]

Word family

• abbrustolimento
• abbrustolito

Related words

• brustolare
• abbrustiare
• bruciare
• brustolino
• Latin ustulō

Usage notes

Abbrustolare is an uncommon variant, conjugated abbrùstolo;^[4][1] abbrustolire has abbrustolisco.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)