capezzolo

Forms

capezzolo m (plural capezzoli)^[1]

Etymology

It is a diminutive formed from Italian capezzo + -olo, from Latin capitium, here “the head of the breast”, according to Nocentini.^[2] DELI and GRADIT describe it as a diminutive of the Latin word, and Sabatini–Coletti and Wiktionary posit a Vulgar Latin diminutive *capitiolum.^[3][4][5][1] The base word had the same meaning in 14th-century Italian.^[6]

The Latin word was formed from caput (“head”) and named something belonging to the head, such as the head opening of a tunic.^[3][7][8][1] It also gave capezza, capezzale and cavezza in Italian, and Old French chevez (modern French chevet “bedhead”), Occitan cabets, Spanish cabezo and Portuguese cabeço “summit”.^[2][8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the word from Firenzuola, 1540–41, in a dialogue on the beauty of women: Nature is pictured as a woman full of breasts, of which one can take only one nipple at a time.^[3][9][10] Tommaseo and the TLIO also quote an older example from a 14th-century vernacular version of the Letters of St Jerome.^[10][6]

Semantic evolution

From the human breast the word was applied to the teats of other mammals, as in Annibal Caro's sheep that offered first one teat and then the other to a baby.^[9] Tommaseo explains the name as “almost a little head”.^[10] In anatomy capezzolo ombelicale is the rounded swelling at the bottom of the navel.^[11][4]

Timeline

• 1540–1541 – Firenzuola uses capezzolo for the nipple.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) nipple, teat: the small projection in the middle of the areola of the breast, where the milk ducts open.^[4][12][11]
2. capezzolo ombelicale, the rounded swelling at the bottom of the navel.^[11][4]

Related words

• capo
• capezzale
• cavezza
• Latin capitium

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d 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 d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 683
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier