cazzuola

Forms

cazzuola f (plural cazzuole, diminutive cazzuolétta)^[1] Old Italian forms are cazola and caçolla.^[2] The variant cazzola is regional.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian cazza (“ladle; crucible”) + -uola, with the feminine of the diminutive suffix -uolo.^{[5][6][4][7][1][2]} GRADIT calls the origin uncertain and the link with the base only probable,^[8] and DELI only compares Medieval Latin cattia (“cup”), of uncertain origin.^[9]

The base, meaning “ladle”, is recorded from 1251, and Medieval Latin caza from 1196.^[8][10] It continues Late Latin cattia, which glosses record beside the form cazza for an iron ladle.^[11] Its origin is disputed.^[11] Meyer-Lübke saw a reshaping of Ancient Greek κύαθος (kúathos, “ladle, cup”), and Brüch, followed by Nocentini, started from its diminutive κυάθιον (kuáthion).^{[11][10][12][1]} Alessio suggested an obscene metaphor from late Greek ἀκάτιον (akátion, “mast”), Rohlfs a loan from Arabic like tazza, which the LEI thinks unlikely for geographical reasons, and Crevatin a form of oco (“gander”) with a suffix, which fails on the dates.^[11] The LEI accepts Prati's derivation from the Latin word for a ladle.^[11] Nocentini derives cazzo from the same word.^[10]

The same base gave Occitan cassa, whence French casse (“pan”) and its diminutive casserole, and Spanish cazo (“ladle”) and Portuguese caço.^[10][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the Italian translation of Palladius of about 1340, where the cazzuola is the mason's tool for spreading lime: isfrega colla cazzuola (rub it with the trowel).^[9][13] The TLIO's first attestation is the Sicilian glossary Declarus of Angelo Senisio, 1348.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word also stood by metonymy for the mason's trade, and once for a pot for cooking mixtures or poultices.^[2] Boccaccio writes of men tolti dalla cazzuola e dall'aratro (taken from the trowel and the plough) and raised to high office.^[13] Maestro di cazzuola is a mason.^[14][6]

Older senses now obsolete are “tadpole” and, figuratively, “idle chatter”.^[8][14][6] Foscolo used it in 1808 for a wooden ladle, the sense of many northern dialect forms such as Milanese casœûla.^[11] In popular use il cazzuola, as a masculine, is a common builder.^[15]

Timeline

• 1196 – Medieval Latin caza is recorded.^[8]
• 1251 – The base cazza is first recorded.^[8]
• About 1340 – Cazzuola appears in the Italian translation of Palladius.^[9]
• 1348 – Angelo Senisio's Declarus records the word in Sicily.^[2]
• 1808 – Foscolo uses cazzuola for a ladle.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trowel: the mason's roughly triangular steel blade with a wooden handle, used to pick up and spread malta.^{[8][3][4][15][1]}
2. A plasterer's float.^[1]
3. (obsolete) A tadpole.^[8][14]
4. (obsolete, figurative) Idle chatter.^[14][6]

Word family

• cazzuoletta
• cazzuolata

Related words

• cazza
• casseruola
• French casserole

Usage notes

The diminutive is cazzuoletta or cazzoletta.^[15][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)