assottigliare

Forms

assottigliare (first-person singular present assottìglio, first-person singular past historic assottigliài, past participle assottigliàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old texts spell it Old Italian asottigliare, Old Italian asotigliare and Old Italian asotiglia and Old Italian asetía.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Italian a- + sottigliare (“to make thin”), an old verb recorded about 1350 in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi.^[3][4][5] The verb sottigliare continues Late Latin subtiliāre, formed from the comparative subtīlior of subtīlis (“fine, thin”).^[3] Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and Devoto instead form the Italian word directly from the Late Latin verb with the prefix ad-, and Treccani from sottile with the prefix a-.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} Wiktionary allows both analyses.^[1]

The same formation is Old French assotillier and Old Occitan asotilhar.^[5][11] The simple verb survives as Romanian subția and Old French soutillier.^[12]

The Latin adjective is usually explained from sub- (“under”) and tēla (“web”), originally a weaving term for the threads that pass under the warp.^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Tuscan translations of Andrea da Grosseto (1268), with the sense “to make thin, to reduce in thickness, surface or volume”.^[2] DELI dates the figurative sense “to make sharp-witted” to before 1306 in Jacopone da Todi and an intransitive “to become sharp-witted” to before 1294 in Guittone d'Arezzo.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb in many senses: of the body growing thin and wasting away, of a voice growing faint, of abstract things such as sin or love diminishing, of matter being rarefied, and figuratively for stripping someone of their goods.^[2] Boccaccio uses assottigliare for women thinning the skin of the neck with glass, beside sottigliare for the cheeks.^[11] The noun assottigliamento is recorded before 1347 in Bartolomeo da San Concordio.^[3]

Marco Polo's travels describe walls that are not as thick above as below but “keep thinning” towards the top (vengono di sopra assottigliando).^[14] An old sense “to water down wine” is now obsolete.^[15] In modern Italian the verb means to make something thinner or slimmer, to sharpen a blade, to cut down quantities such as expenses or stocks, and to sharpen the mind, and the pronominal assottigliarsi to grow thinner or to dwindle.^[4][7][16]

Timeline

• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses the verb, the TLIO's first record.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it intransitively for “to become sharp-witted”.^[3]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses it for “to make sharp-witted”.^[3][4]
• 1340–1342 – Boccaccio uses it for “to make thin or lean”.^[3]
• Before 1347 – Assottigliamento appears in Bartolomeo da San Concordio.^[3]
• About 1350 – The simple verb sottigliare is recorded in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To make thin or thinner, to taper: assottigliare un ramo con il coltello.^[4][7][9]
2. (transitive) To make someone slimmer, or make them look slimmer: quella gonna ti assottiglia i fianchi.^[4][9][16]
3. (transitive) To sharpen a blade or point.^[4][7][15]
4. (transitive, figurative) To reduce or cut down in quantity: assottigliare i costi.^[4][7][16]
5. (transitive, figurative) To make a faculty keener, to refine the mind or the senses.^[4][16][15]
6. (pronominal, assottigliarsi) To grow thinner or slimmer, or to dwindle in number.^[7][16][9]

Word family

• assottigliamento
• rassottigliare
• assottigliatore
• assottigliatura
• riassottigliare

Related words

• sottile
• sottigliezza
• Latin subtīlis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 335
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse