buca

Forms

buca f (plural buche)^[1] The form Old Italian boca is also recorded in Old Italian.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin būca, recorded from the 9th century, a variant of Latin bucca (“cheek; mouth”) with a long vowel, used figuratively for a hollow.^[3][4][5][1] Nocentini notes that the alternation of bucca and *būca has many parallels in Romance, and that names of body parts are often extended to features of the outside world.^[4] The masculine buco was formed from it, as fosso was from fossa.^[3] Medieval Latin has boca at Venice in 1270 and bucha in 1292, and the same form in Emilia in the same century.^[3]

DELI finds this explanation simpler than Salvioni's Vulgar Latin *vocuus (“empty”), which needs a complicated development.^[3] The LEI instead traces it to a pre-Latin verbal base meaning “to prick, pierce”.^[3] DEI also saw the word, which belongs to central and northern Italy, as pre-Latin, and Zaccaria took it from Old High German būh (“belly”).^[6][7] GRADIT and Treccani call the origin uncertain.^[8][9]

The origin of Latin bucca is unclear.^[10][1] Its first sense was a puffed-out cheek, and “mouth” was a later, derogatory use.^[10] A Celtic source has been suggested because of names such as Buccus.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine Tesoro in the vernacular, of the late 13th century, where buca is a hollow in the ground, open on one side, and also an animal's den.^[2] DELI's first Italian record is in Dante (1300–1313).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the word for a pit in the ice of Cocytus, for the sepulcral buca of the tomb, a rendering of the Gospel's “monument hewn in the rock”, and in 1313–1319 for a narrow passage.^[11][3] A sense “dip in the ground” appears in Leonardo, before 1519, and a figurative “debt, financial hole” in 1634.^[3]

Later uses name many hollows: the prompter's box and the orchestra pit in a theatre, the slot of a letter box (buca delle lettere), and the pockets of a billiard table.^[12][13][14] A restaurant or bar below street level is a buca from 1941, especially in Tuscan names.^[3][15] The sporting sense, the hole in golf, follows English hole.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 1270 – Medieval Latin boca is recorded at Venice.^[3]
• 1292 – Medieval Latin bucha is recorded at Venice.^[3]
• Late 13th century – The Florentine vernacular Tesoro has buca.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses buca.^[3]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo uses it for a dip in the ground.^[3]
• 1634 – F. Rondinelli uses it figuratively for a debt.^[3]
• 1941 – The Academy dictionary records it for a restaurant below street level.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hole or pit in the ground, natural or dug, usually deeper than it is wide: Il cane ha scavato una buca vicino al cancello.^[8][16][14]
2. A dip in the ground or in the sea bed.^[8][16][3]
3. (golf) Each of the holes into which the ball must be played, and the part of the course leading to it.^[8]
4. (billiards) Each of the pockets of the table.^[8][13]
5. An opening made for a purpose: buca delle lettere, a letter box;^[12][14][8] buca del suggeritore, the prompter's box.^[12][14][8]
6. A trattoria or bar below street level.^[15][3]
7. A hollow left in a bed or seat, or in sunken cheeks.^[15]

Word family

• buco
• bucare
• buchetta
• imbucare
• sbucare
• bucaneve

Related words

• bocca
• Latin bucca

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 o p q r Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 621
7. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier