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bacio

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bacio1 kiss

Pronunciation

  • /ˈba.t͡ʃo/, [ˈbaːʃo][1]

Forms

bacio m (plural baci)[1] Old Italian forms include bascio, basio, baso and bagio.[2][3][4]

Etymology

The kiss is inherited from Latin bāsium (“kiss”).[3][5][6][1] The Latin word first appears, with the verb basiāre, in Catullus, who was from Verona, and that is why it is often thought to be a Celtic loan.[3][7][8] Its erotic sense set it apart from Latin ōsculum, but in Imperial Latin it became the ordinary word, replacing that noun and sāvium.[7][9] De Vaan also notes the many words for “kiss” in other languages built on Proto-Indo-European *bu- with a sibilant, which point to a sound-imitative origin.[7][1]

The word survives everywhere in Romance except French and Romanian: Friulian bâs, Occitan bais, Catalan bes, Spanish beso, Portuguese beijo and Sardinian basu.[5][9][10] In the South Italian dialects the word fell together with the outcome of Latin vas (“vessel”) and was replaced by derivatives.[8][10] The old spelling with ⟨sc⟩ beside ⟨c⟩ shows the hesitation between /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ in rendering Latin /sj/.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is bascio in Rinaldo d'Aquino, in the 13th century, for the kiss given out of love;[3][2][12] Zingarelli dates the word to about 1261.[3][2][12] The spelling bacio appears in Cecco Angiolieri before 1313.[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already distinguished kisses of love, of family affection, of respect and submission, of peace, and the kiss given to the ground of a holy place; the bacio di Giuda echoes the Gospel story of Judas's betrayal.[2][3] Tommaseo records the Tuscan proverb bacio di bocca spesso cuor non tocca (“a kiss of the mouth often does not touch the heart”).[13]

Modern Italian ends letters with baci or baci e abbracci and has many fixed phrases: bacio della buonanotte, bacio della morte, malattia del bacio (mononucleosis), and colloquial al bacio “perfect”.[6][14][12] Bacio is also a sweet: the bacio di dama and the chocolate with a hazelnut first sold as a brand name by the Perugina company.[14][15]

Timeline

  • 13th century – Rinaldo d'Aquino uses bascio.[3][2]
  • Before 1313 – Cecco Angiolieri uses the form bacio.[3]
  • 1367 – Fazio degli Uberti uses bagio.[4]
  • Before 1554 – Baciamano is recorded in Sabba da Castiglione.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A kiss, a touch of the lips on someone or something as a sign of love, affection or respect: Le ha dato un bacio sulla guancia.[6][14][11]
  2. In greetings and at the end of letters: baci, un bacio.[6][14]
  3. (cooking) A small sweet or chocolate: bacio di dama.[14][15]

Word family

  • baciare
  • bacetto
  • bacione
  • baciucchiare
  • sbaciucchiare
  • baciamano
  • baciapile
  • combaciare

bacio2 shady, north-facing

Pronunciation

  • /baˈt͡ʃi.o/[1]

Forms

bacio (feminine bacia, masculine plural bacii, feminine plural bacie)[1]

Etymology

The adjective “north-facing” is inherited from Vulgar Latin *opacīvus (“shady”), a Vulgar Latin derivative of Latin opācus (“shady, dark”).[3][5][6][1] It is stressed on the ⟨i⟩.[14][15] The /b/ for /p/ is due to northern Italian dialects, and the first vowel was taken as part of the article: “l’obacìo” became “lo bacìo”.[5][16] Related dialect forms are Lombard vag, Romagnol beg and Piedmontese übak, and Old Italian ombaco has its ⟨m⟩ from ombra.[10][17][8] Across the Alps the same Latin word gave Occitan ubac and Catalan ubac.[10][8]

The origin of the Latin adjective is unknown; de Vaan rejects the old comparison with Sanskrit and Old Church Slavonic words meaning “turned away” and suggests, only as a possibility, a compound with the root of Latin vacuus.[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine Libro segreto di Giotto (1308–1330).[2] DELI's first records are Luigi Pulci (before 1484) for a north-facing place and Giovan Battista Tedaldi (16th century) for the adjective.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word is Tuscan and mostly agricultural, the opposite of solatio “sunny”: Crescenzi's translation already uses a bacìo “facing north”, and Bernardo Davanzati writes of plums that thrive in luoghi murati e bacii (walled and shady places).[18][13][5] Pascoli and D'Annunzio revived it as a literary word.[8][18]

Timeline

  • 1308–1330 – Bacìo appears in the Libro segreto di Giotto.[2]
  • Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci uses it for a north-facing place.[3]
  • 16th century – Giovan Battista Tedaldi uses it as an adjective.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (regional, rare) shady, not reached by the sun because it faces north: un pendio bacìo.[6][14][12]

Noun

  1. (regional) A north-facing, shady place, a bacìo, facing north.[6][12][19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
  5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 398
  9. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 4, 1735
  10. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  14. ^ 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
  15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  17. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  18. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  19. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli