casa

Forms

casa f (plural case, diminutive casìna or casétta or casettìna, augmentative casóna or casóne m, pejorative casàccia, endearing-derogatory casùccia)^[1] The shortened form ca’ or ca, found in Dante and in rural Tuscany, is usual in the north and around Lucca before a name, as in Venetian ca.^[2][3] Old northern forms include Old Italian caxa and Old Italian chaxa.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin casa (“hut, cottage”).^[6][7][8][1] In classical Latin the word for a house was domus, which survives in Italian duomo; the Latin word named the countryman's hut, opposed to the villa and to the town house.^[6][9][4] It replaced the older word in almost all the Romance languages; that word survives only in Sardinia.^[4][10] The word is panromance: Romanian casă, Dalmatian kuosa, Friulian ciase, Occitan casa, Catalan casa, Spanish casa and Portuguese casa;^[7][3] Old French chiese survives in the preposition French chez (“at the house of”).^[7][3][4]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[6][11][12] Its single /s/ between vowels points to a word from outside Rome: Nocentini derives it from an Oscan form of Proto-Italic *katja and compares Avestan kata- (“chamber”) and Old Church Slavonic котьць (kotĭcĭ, “cell, nest”),^[7] while de Vaan, who cites the same forms beside a possible root Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to plait”), thinks a loanword more likely.^[11] DEI and Devoto suggest a Mediterranean relic word.^[10][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Savona document of 1178–1182, and the LEI gives the Old Ligurian form from the same text.^[5][4] DELI's first literary record is in the Cremonese poet Girardo Patecchio at the beginning of the 13th century, in the sense “building to live in”, and the sense “the people living in a house, household” is in a Florentine document of 1233.^[6] Patecchio wrote: “Mei è a l'om aver poco con 'legreza et amore / ch'aver piena la casa con plaid e con romore” (better to have little with joy and love than a house full of quarrels and noise).^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the dwelling the word passed early to those who live in it and to the family line: Dante uses casa for a lineage and for a religious house, a monastery.^[6] The TLIO records Old Italian uses for the Kingdom of Heaven (casa del Padre), for a church (casa di Dio), for an animal's den and for each of the twelve houses of the sky in astrology.^[5] A building for many people, such as a hospital or hostel, is in Guicciardini before 1540, and a commercial firm in Filippo Sassetti in 1557, a sense Prati links with French maison.^[6][2]

In some northern and Tuscan dialects casa came to mean the kitchen, and southern Italy calls hell casa cauda “the hot house”.^[10][3] Several modern phrases are calques: casa di salute and casa di tolleranza from French maison de santé and maison de tolérance, casa di correzione from English house of correction, and Casa Bianca from White House (1918).^[6] English slang took the word as casa “house; brothel” at the end of the 18th century, and later karzy “lavatory” (1961).^[14]

Timeline

• 1178–1182 – Casa appears in a Savona document.^[5]
• Early 13th century – Girardo Patecchio uses casa.^[6]
• 1233 – Casa “household” in a Florentine document.^[6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses casa for a lineage and for a monastery.^[6]
• Before 1540 – Casa for a building for many people, in Guicciardini.^[6]
• 1557 – Casa “firm, company” in Filippo Sassetti.^[6]
• Late 18th century – English slang casa “house” is recorded.^[14]
• 1918 – Casa Bianca is recorded as a calque of White House.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A house, a building divided into rooms or flats for people to live in: una casa di tre piani con l'orto.^[8][15][16]
2. home, one's own dwelling or flat: torno a casa alle sette, cerchiamo casa in centro.^[8][15][17]
3. The family, the household: telefono a casa ogni sera; also with a family name: casa Rossi.^[8][16][18]
4. A dynasty, a noble family line: la casa reale.^[8][16][19]
5. A building for a community or institution: casa di riposo, casa dello studente, casa di cura.^[18][16][8]
6. A firm, a company: casa editrice, casa discografica.^[8][16][17]
7. One's own country: giocare in casa (to play at home).^[8][1]
8. (games) A square of a chessboard or draughtboard, (astrology) one of the twelve houses of the sky.^[16][5]

Word family

• casale
• casalinga
• casalingo
• casata
• casato
• caseggiato
• casella
• casello
• casino
• casolare
• casotto
• casupola
• accasare
• rincasare
• casigliano

Related words

• duomo
• Latin casa
• French chez

Usage notes

A casa and in casa both mean “at home”, and a casa di “at someone's house”;^[17][8] essere di casa is to be a regular visitor.^[17][8] Fixed phrases include casa dolce casa (home sweet home), fatto in casa (homemade) and essere casa e chiesa (to live only for home and church).^[1][18] The /s/ is voiceless in standard and Tuscan pronunciation and voiced in the north.^[1][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 248
3. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 923
5. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 788
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 83
14. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
19. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli