castrare

Forms

castrare (first-person singular present càstro, first-person singular past historic castrài, past participle castràto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also had crastare, with the ⟨r⟩ moved.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin castrāre (“to castrate; to thin out plants”).^[4][5][6][7] The Latin word has continued in all the Romance area, except Romanian: French châtrer, Friulian ciastrâ, Occitan crestar, Catalan castrar, Spanish castrar and Portuguese crastar.^[3][5][8] Meyer-Lübke and Corominas doubted that it was everywhere a popular word.^[3][9] The LEI finds a split between popular forms with ⟨cr-⟩ and learned forms with ⟨castr-⟩ hard to keep up, because castrone and the name of Castruccio Castracani are popular.^[3][9]

According to most scholars, the Latin verb is derived from a noun Proto-Italic *kastro- “instrument for cutting”, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”).^[7] Its relatives include Ancient Greek κεάζω (keázō, “to split”).^[7][5][8] Devoto thought it may be tied to the sacred rites of Indo-European priests.^[10] The ancients linked the word with Latin castus (“chaste”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Pisan bestiary of the late 13th century, where the verb is used of the ox.^[2][3] DELI gives Giovanni Villani (before 1348), in the sense of removing the genitals of an animal or a person: a captive had his eyes put out and was castrated so that he could never have children.^[4][11] The derivatives are older: castrato is recorded in 1279 and castrone, a gelded lamb or colt, in 1287–1288.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the verb was used most of farm animals: horses, bulls, calves and poultry, for meat with more flavour and tamer beasts.^[3][11] It was also used for cutting into chestnuts so that they do not burst while roasting (before 1449, Burchiello), and for taking honey from hives.^[4][2] Annibal Caro joked about whole mountains being castrated for their stone.^[12] Cutting out passages from a text for moral or political reasons is a later figurative sense.^[8][13] In the 20th century, partly through psychoanalysis, it came to mean to frustrate someone and stifle their abilities, and castrante “frustrating” is common.^[13]

Isidore of Seville wrote Castus primum a castratione nuncupatus (“chaste was first named from castration”).^[11] The derivatives followed their own way: castrone became a foolish or cowardly person (before 1400, Sacchetti), whence castroneria, a gross blunder (before 1527, Machiavelli). Castrato became the castrated singer (before 1647).^[4]

Timeline

• 1279 – Castrato is recorded.^[5]
• 1288 – Castrato “wether, mutton” and castrone appear in the accounts of a Florentine convent.^[4]
• Late 13th century – A Pisan bestiary uses castrare of the ox.^[2][3]
• About 1340 – The Italian Palladius has castratoio, the gelding knife.^[4]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses castrare of a man.^[4][11]
• Before 1449 – Burchiello uses it for cutting chestnuts before roasting.^[4]
• Before 1527 – Machiavelli uses castroneria.^[4]
• 1550 – Vasari uses castrazione.^[4]
• Before 1647 – Giovanni Battista Doni uses castrato for the singer.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To castrate, geld or neuter an animal, removing its reproductive organs or making them useless: castrare un puledro.^{[6][14][15][1]}
2. To castrate a man, the same as evirare.^[6][14][13]
3. (figurative) To stifle someone's hopes and abilities, to frustrate.^{[6][14][15][1]}
4. (figurative) To censor a text or a show.^[6][14][15]
5. To cut into chestnuts before roasting so that they do not burst.^[6][14][13]

Word family

• castrato
• castrone
• castrazione
• castratore
• castratoio
• castratura
• castroneria
• castronaggine
• castrante
• castrino

Related words

• casto
• Latin castrō

Usage notes

DEI treats the chestnut sense as a separate word, from Latin castrare in the sense “to cut, clean”, used by Pliny and Columella.^[8] DELI and the modern dictionaries keep it under one verb.^[8][4][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 800
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d e 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse