cacca

Forms

cacca f (plural cacche)^[1] There is also Old Italian caca in Old Italian.^[2] The form caca is still regional, chiefly central Italian.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is a word of children's speech, connected with cacare.^[6][7][5] According to Nocentini and Wiktionary it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cacca, a noun matching the verb Latin cacō (“to defecate”); the noun is not recorded in Latin but lives on in the Romance languages.^[8][1]

The same word is French caca, Spanish caca and Portuguese caca, and Romagnol càca and Sicilian cacca among the dialects.^[8][9][1] Meyer-Lübke classed these as nursery forms tied to the verb but left unchanged by sound change, and placed beside them caccola and a Sardinian form with another vowel.^[9] DEI notes that French took up the word only in the 16th century.^[10]

Nocentini explains the doubled consonant as a variant of the elementary syllable sequence ⟨ka-ka⟩, which spoken Latin must have had: in French, sound change had turned the verb into French chier, which could no longer serve as the base of a sound-symbolic noun.^[8] Outside Latin he compares Ancient Greek κάκκη (kákkē, “excrement”), Old Irish cacc (“excrement”) and an Armenian word for dung, and traces Ancient Greek κακός (kakós, “bad”) to the same base.^[8] Wiktionary allows that the Italian word may even come directly from the Greek one, and the Treccani notes that Aristotle already used the noun and the verb κακκάω (kakkáō, “to defecate”).^[1][11] DEI, on the other hand, thinks a loan from Greek unlikely.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the poems of the Anonimo Genovese, before 1311, where the sense “excrement” is not quite certain; the TLIO also records the phrase cacca di occhi for the rheum of the eyes (cispa).^[2] DELI dates the sense “excrement” to Luigi Pulci, before 1484.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Prati describes cacca as the word used in talking to children, and records the old sense “rheum of the eyes” in a medical translation and in Lorenzo de' Medici.^[12] Tommaseo quotes Lorenzo's song of an old woman whose eyes are full of it: Ell'ha gli occhi pien di cacca (“her eyes are full of rheum”).^[13] The diminutive caccola, first recorded as cacola, means the droppings of some animals, the discharge of the eyes and the mucus of the nose or ears.^[6]

A figurative sense “haughtiness, conceit” was recorded by Fanfani in 1855;^[6][13] Tommaseo heard it as a low word, in the exclamation Quanta cacca ha costui! (“how stuck-up he is!”).^[6][13] Modern dictionaries add the use of the word, in talking to children, for anything dirty that must not be touched, and the figurative sense “worthless or disgusting thing”, milder than merda.^[7][3] Zingarelli also records it as a popular interjection of spite or anger, and the vulgar phrase avere la cacca al culo, “to be terrified”.^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1311 – The Anonimo Genovese uses cacca.^[2]
• 1386 – Medieval Latin cachula is recorded at Mirandola.^[6]
• 1427 – San Bernardino da Siena uses cacola, the earliest form of caccola.^[6]
• Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci uses cacca for excrement.^[6][7]
• 1855 – Fanfani's dictionary records the sense “haughtiness”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (colloquial, children's speech) poo, excrement: Il cucciolo ha fatto la cacca sul tappeto.^[7][3][1]
2. (by extension, chiefly to children) Something dirty that must not be touched.^[7][3][5]
3. (figurative, derogatory) A worthless or disgusting thing or person; rubbish.^[7][3][4]
4. (popular, uncommon) Haughtiness, conceit.^[7][3][5]

Interjection

1. (popular) Expresses spite or anger.^[5]

Word family

• caccola
• caccoso

Related words

• cacare
• Latin cacō
• French caca

Usage notes

Common phrases are fare la cacca and farsi la cacca addosso, literally or as an exaggeration for urgent need.^[7][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ 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
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 651
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 199
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET