cesta

Forms

cesta f (plural ceste)^[1] Old Italian forms include çesta, cieste and cista.^[2] Old Venetian had zesta (1475), and Old Sicilian and Messinese cista.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cista (“box, chest of wickerwork”), from Ancient Greek κίστη (kístē, “basket”).^{[4][5][6][1][7]} DELI calls the Greek word pre-Indo-European.^[4] DEI doubts the loan from Greek: Latin had many derivatives such as cistula (already in Plautus) and cisterna, and it sees a Mediterranean word of the craft of weaving wicker.^[8]

The Latin word continues in Occitan cesta, Catalan cesta, Spanish cesta and Portuguese cesta, in Friulian ceste and in Romansh chaista (Engadine), but not in Romanian or Sardinian.^[5][3] It was borrowed early into Old High German kista, before ⟨ci-⟩ was palatalised.^[3] The masculine cesto goes back to a Late Latin base too.^[3]

Some northern and southern forms with ⟨i⟩, such as Old Sicilian cista, point to a regional Latin cīsta with a long vowel.^[3] The word is a doublet of the learned cista.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Dichiarazione di Paxia, a Savona document of 1178–1182, where cesta is a wicker basket.^[2][3] DELI dates the same text to before 1193.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for any container of woven wicker or similar material, with or without a handle, and also for a wicker trap for birds or fish and a two-wheeled cart whose bed was a basket.^[2][9] Boccaccio has a young man hidden sotto una cesta da polli, “under a chicken basket”.^[10][9]

Later senses include the wicker basket of a balloon, the curved wicker glove of the Basque game of pelota, and the actor's trunk of costumes in theatre slang.^[6][11][12] In Tuscany cesta was a cart for carrying wine in flasks, which is the source of andare in cesta and essere in cesta, “to get drunk”.^[13][12]

Derivatives took their own paths: cestino became the wastepaper basket (1905), cestinare journalists' slang for rejecting a manuscript (1886), and cestista a basketball player (1935).^[4]

Timeline

• 1178–1182 – cesta appears in a Savona document.^[2][3]
• 1221 – Sienese ceste are recorded in an inventory.^[3]
• Before 1342 – cestello “small basket” is recorded (Domenico Cavalca).^[4]
• 1386 – Medieval Latin cistum is recorded at Mirandola, and Italian cesto follows in 1481.^[4]
• 1886 – cestinare is recorded.^[4]
• 1905 – cestino is recorded for the wastepaper basket.^[4]
• 1935 – cestista “basketball player” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large basket with high sides, usually of woven wicker or chestnut strips: una cesta di vimini piena di mele.^[6][13][14]
2. The amount a basket holds: due ceste di pere.^[6][13][14]
3. (theatre) The trunk holding an actor's costumes and props.^[6][13][14]
4. (sport) In Basque pelota, the curved wicker scoop used to catch and throw the ball.^[6][13][11]
5. The basket of a balloon, especially one made of wicker.^[6][13][14]
6. (Tuscany, historical) A cart with a large basket on its bed, used to carry flasks of wine.^[6][13][11]

Word family

• cesto
• cestino
• cestello
• cestinare
• cestaio
• cestista
• cestismo
• cestone
• cestella

Related words

• cista
• cisterna

Usage notes

A ceste means “in great quantities”.^[11][15][16] The Tuscan sense of the cart gave andare in cesta, “to get drunk”.^[13][12]

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 h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 753
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 879
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli