callo

Forms

callo m (plural calli)^[1] Old Italian forms include challo and callu.^[2] In Piedmont, Lombardy and central Italy the plural cagli (dialect cai) is sometimes used as a singular, since calluses come in numbers.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin callum (“hard skin, callus”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin neuter had a masculine variant callus, and its plural was always masculine.^[7][8] The word continues in Friulian ciàl, Old French chaul, Catalan call and Spanish callo.^[3][5]

The further origin is uncertain.^[4][7] De Vaan thinks it was first an adjective “hard”, which would explain the wavering gender and the verb calleō (“to be hard; to know how”), with callidus (“experienced, clever”).^[7] He compares Old Irish calad (“hard”) and Welsh caled (“hard”), and more doubtfully Old Church Slavonic калити (kaliti, “to harden”), said of metal in the forge.^[7][5][1] Wiktionary sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *kal- (“hard”).^[1] Devoto mentions a possible link with callis (“path”), as something trodden hard.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the prose letters of Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, in the sense “thickening and hardening of the skin”.^[2][4] Dante has it about 1313, in a simile of the face numbed by cold siccome d'un callo (“as in a callus”).^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used it figuratively: fare un callo al cuore was to harden one's heart, and a sin that had “made a callus” was a habitual one.^[2] Cavalca says a praying saint had calluses on his knees like a camel's.^[11] From this comes fare il callo a qualcosa, to grow used to it, which Tommaseo cites from Petrarch.^[11] The word also named a growth of tissue on a broken bone or a plant wound in the 14th century, with fare callo “to heal over”,^[2] and the hard swellings on a horse's legs near the joints from Baldinucci (before 1696).^[4]

Learned derivatives came from Latin: callosità (13th century) and calloso (1314).^[4][5] Callista, the corn-cutter, is recorded in 1797, and callifugo, a corn remedy, in 1886.^[4][5]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses callo.^[2][4]
• About 1313 – Dante uses it in the Inferno.^[10]
• 1314 – Francesco da Barberino has calloso.^[4]
• 1324–1328 – Jacopo della Lana uses it at Bologna.^[10]
• Before 1696 – Baldinucci uses it for a horse's swelling.^[4]
• 1797 – Callista is recorded.^[4]
• 1886 – Callifugo is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A callus or corn: a thickening of the skin, mostly on the hands and feet, from pressure or rubbing: A forza di zappare ho i calli sulle mani.^{[6][12][13][14]}
2. (veterinary) A hard swelling on the legs of horses and other animals near the joints.^[6][12][14]
3. (medicine) callo osseo, the tissue that joins the ends of a broken bone.^[12][13][14]
4. (botany) A mass of tissue that forms over a wound in a plant.^[6][12][14]
5. In butchered meat, the hard white part that comes with the muscle.^[12][15]

Word family

• callista
• callosità
• calloso
• callifugo
• incallire
• incallimento
• incallito

Related words

• Latin callum

Usage notes

Fare il callo a qualcosa is to get used to it, and pestare i calli a qualcuno is to tread on someone's toes.^[12][14][16]

In Rome callo is also the local form of caldo “heat”.^[1] Minor homographs: an old coin of southern Italy worth a twelfth of a grano, named after the horse on it,^[17] and an old callo “path”, from the plural of calle.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9, 1466
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 75
10. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9
11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 688
18. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 550