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caccia

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word caccia

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
before 1250, Giacomo da Lentini
Ultimate origin
Latin capiō

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkat.t͡ʃa/[1]

Forms

caccia f (plural cacce)[1] Old forms include Old Italian caça, Old Italian caza, Old Italian chaça and Old Italian cacia.[2]

Etymology

It is a noun formed from the verb cacciare without a suffix (from Italian cacciare + -a).[3][4][5][6][2][1] The verb continues Vulgar Latin *captiāre (“to try to catch”), an intensive of Latin capiō (“to take”) that took the place of the classical captō.[3][4][5][1] The LEI notes that the Latin verb is not recorded but must have existed, since the whole Romance area continues it, and that its sense “drive away”, the opposite of “catch”, probably arose after Romanian had separated in the 3rd century.[7]

The same verb is Romanian acăța (“to grab”), Friulian çhaçâ, Old French chacier, Old Occitan cazar, Catalan caçar, Spanish cazar and Portuguese caçar, and the noun is French chasse, Spanish caza and Portuguese caça.[7][4][8][9] The English words chase and catch are related.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, for the search for, lying in wait for and capture of wild animals.[3][5] The TLIO's first example is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur.[2]

Semantic evolution

Before 1292 Bono Giamboni used the word for the pursuit of people.[3] Old Italian also used it for an army's pursuit of a fleeing enemy, with phrases such as dare la caccia a qualcuno “to give chase to someone”, and for the game taken, the hunting party with its animals and gear, and a hunt as an organised event.[2] Boccaccio's Decameron speaks of a nobleman who took “very great delight” in hunting (grandissimo diletto prendea nelle caccie).[10][11]

Around 1400 Sercambi used caccia for a poetic and musical form of the 14th and 15th centuries for several voices, with a text that described a hunt.[3][5] In the Middle Ages the word also named a canon.[5] German borrowed the musical term in 1879.[12]

Caccia del toro for a bullfight gave way at the end of the 19th century to corrida.[3] Caccia alle streghe “witch-hunt”, for ideological persecution, is a calque of English witch hunt, a term of the McCarthy years, and is recorded in Italian in 1963.[3] The masculine caccia is short for aereo da caccia “fighter plane” (1917, Marinetti) and, from 1918, for cacciatorpediniere “destroyer”.[5][3][13]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses caccia for hunting.[3][5]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for the pursuit of people.[3]
  • c. 1400 – Sercambi uses it for a musical form describing a hunt.[3]
  • 1879 – German Caccia (music) is recorded.[12]
  • 1917 – Marinetti uses masculine caccia for a fighter plane.[5]
  • 1918 – Caccia “destroyer” appears in Panzini's dictionary.[3]
  • 1963 – Caccia alle streghe is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. hunting, the hunt: the search for and capture or killing of wild animals, by people or by other animals: Ogni autunno va a caccia di lepri con il suo cane.[5][14][15][1]
  2. Hunting as regulated by law, with its seasons and licences: Domenica si apre la caccia al fagiano.[5][14][6]
  3. The game killed, cacciagione: Per la cena di Natale hanno servito caccia.[14][6][15][16]
  4. (literary) The place where hunting is done, or the hunters as a group.[5][14][16]
  5. A pursuit, a determined search for someone: I carabinieri danno la caccia ai rapinatori.[5][14][6]
  6. (figurative) An eager search for something: È sempre a caccia di complimenti.[5][15][16]
  7. (military) The pursuit and attack of enemy aircraft or ships by aircraft or ships.[5][6][16]
  8. A game in which something has to be found, as in caccia al tesoro, a treasure hunt.[5][6]
  9. (literature, music) A poem of the 14th and 15th centuries, usually set to music, describing scenes of hunting.[5][6][16]
  10. (masculine, invariable; aviation) A fighter plane.[5][14][6][17]
  11. (masculine, invariable; navy) A destroyer.[5][14][6][17]

Word family

  • anticaccia
  • cacciarella
  • cacciare
  • cacciatore
  • cacciagione
  • cacciatorpediniere
  • scacciare
  • Latin capiō
  • French chasse

Usage notes

Common phrases are andare a caccia (to go hunting), dare la caccia a (to hunt down, chase), caccia grossa (big-game hunting), caccia all'uomo (manhunt) and caccia alle streghe (witch-hunt).[5][15][16][17] The plural of the feminine noun is cacce.[1][14] An old and dialect noun caccia “ladle”, related to cazza, has an entry of its own in the GDLI.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 j k l m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 d 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 Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
Cite this entry

“Caccia.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/caccia. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·