ascia

Forms

ascia f (plural asce)^[1] An older and popular Tuscan form is asce, with the same plural.^[2][3][4] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian axa, Venetian assa and Lombard ass at Milan.^[5][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ascia (“axe; adze”).^[6][7][8][1] The same word is Old French aisse, with the modern diminutive French assette, and Old Occitan aisa, Catalan aixa and Romansh ascha.^[7][9][2] The Italian word passed into Croatian aška, a cooper's axe.^[2] Despite the similar sound, French hache is unrelated: it goes back to Frankish *happjā.^[1]

The LEI explains the old feminine asce, probably Tuscan, by the shift between declensions that gave doublets such as ape and apa.^[2] DEI compares the pair with fasca and fasce.^[10]

The Latin word resembles Ancient Greek ἀξίνη (axī́nē, “axe”), Gothic 𐌰𐌵𐌹𐌶𐌹 (aqizi) and Old High German acchus, the source of German Axt.^[11][7][12] Nocentini reconstructs a starting form *aks- with metathesis of ⟨ks⟩ to ⟨sk⟩ in Latin.^[7] De Vaan objects that Latin keeps /ks/ between vowels (as in axis and texō) and that the forms cannot be reduced to one Indo-European source, so the word may be a loan that underwent the metathesis before it reached Latin.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Bono Giamboni's Florentine translation of Vegetius, before 1292, for a tool for cutting timber with a curved blade fixed at the end of a handle.^[5][2] DELI dates the word from Giordano da Pisa, 1304, who compares a preacher to a craftsman who strikes three hundred blows with the ascia without missing one.^[6][13]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named the carpenter's tool, whose cutting edge is across the handle, unlike the scure, whose edge runs along it.^[13][5] Old Italian already had maestro d'ascia, the shipwright who builds and repairs wooden boats, a title still used in naval building.^[5][14] Latin ascia also meant a mason's hammer and a trowel, and the LEI treats ascia for a kind of rake as a 19th-century Latinism.^[3][11][2]

In common use ascia also stands for any axe, including the battle-axe of the Middle Ages and the tomahawk of North American peoples;^[15][16][17] dissotterrare l'ascia di guerra “dig up the hatchet” means to start a quarrel.^[15][16][17] Fatto con l'ascia describes rough, hasty work or a clumsy person.^[15][14] In zoology ascia d'argento is a small deep-sea fish with light organs, named for the shape of its body.^[4][18][15]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses ascia in his translation of Vegetius.^[5][2]
• 1304 – Giordano da Pisa uses the word in a sermon.^[6][13]
• Second half of the 14th century – ascia is recorded at Gubbio.^[2]
• 1519 – Sicilian axa is recorded in Scobar.^[2]
• 1565 – The form assa is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An adze: a cutting tool for shaping timber, with the blade set across the handle.^[8][4][14]
2. An axe in general;^[15][16][17] ascia di guerra, a battle-axe or tomahawk.^[15][16][17]
3. (archaeology) A prehistoric tool or weapon with a cutting head of stone or metal set across the shaft.^[14][4]
4. (zoology) ascia d'argento, a small deep-sea hatchetfish with light organs.^[4][18][15]

Word family

• asciata
• asciare

Related words

• accetta
• azza
• Latin ascia

Usage notes

The plural is asce;^[4][16] asce is also an old and popular singular.^[4][16] The phrase maestro d'ascia names a ship's carpenter.^[14][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1556
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 316
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 722
14. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
18. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse