colare

Forms

colare (first-person singular present cólo, first-person singular past historic colài, past participle colàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cōlāre (“to strain”), a verb formed from cōlum (“strainer”).^[2][3][4][1] The verb is Romance-wide: French couler, Occitan colar, Catalan colar, Spanish colar, Portuguese coar, Sardinian colare and Romanian cura.^[3][5][6] The sense “to sink”, of a ship, is a calque on the French verb, which has the same Latin source.^[2][7][1]

The origin of the noun is uncertain.^[2] The oldest strainer was a basket of woven twigs, so it has been taken as the same word as Latin caulae (“railing, lattice”), but ⟨au⟩ is never found in the word; de Vaan and Nocentini prefer to explain it together with Latin quālum (“basket”).^[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in anonymous poetry from the Marche of the mid-13th century.^[9] The TLIO's first sense is to pour or let a liquid fall from above;^[9][2] DELI's first dated sense, to pass a liquid through a filter so that it comes out clear, is in Bono Giamboni before 1292.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the verb also meant to melt and pour slowly, as in the Intelligenza, and Dante used it intransitively for a liquid that drips and flows.^[2] The participle colato was used in 1282 for something filtered, and oro colato, refined gold, is in Uguccione da Lodi.^[2]

The sense “to sink”, of a ship, is in the D'Alberti dictionary of 1772; today it lives in colare a picco and colare a fondo.^[2][4][10] Kitchen words grew from the verb: colino and colabrodo in 1846, colapasta in 1964.^[2] Colata was the pouring of molten metal in 1865 and a lava flow in the 1920s.^[2]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – The verb appears in anonymous poetry from the Marche.^[9]
• 1282 – Colato “filtered” appears in Restoro d'Arezzo.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses colare for straining a liquid.^[2]
• 14th century – The Intelligenza uses it for melting and pouring.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for a liquid that drips.^[2]
• 1772 – The sense “to sink” is recorded in D'Alberti.^[2]
• 1846 – Colabrodo and colino are recorded by Carena.^[2]
• 1865 – Colata in foundry work is recorded in Tommaseo.^[2]
• 1964 – Colapasta is recorded in the GDLI.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To strain, filter: to pass a liquid through a filter to clear it; to drain cooked food; to sift grain: colare il minestrone.^{[4][7][10][1]}
2. To cast: to pour molten metal or a fluid substance into a mould or onto a surface; to melt gold or silver for casting.^[4][7][1]
3. To let out drop by drop; of a container, to leak: il secchio cola.^[4][10]
4. (intransitive, auxiliary essere) To drip, trickle slowly: il sudore gli colava sul collo.^[4][1]
5. (intransitive) To melt; figuratively, to fade.^[4]
6. (nautical) To sink, of a ship, chiefly in colare a picco and colare a fondo, also transitively.^[4][10][1]

Word family

• colabrodo
• colapasta
• colata
• colaticcio
• colato
• colatoio
• colatore
• colatura
• colino
• cola
• colo
• scolare

Related words

• Latin cōlum
• French couler

Usage notes

GRADIT lists a separate obsolete literary colare “to honour, venerate”, from Latin colō (“to cultivate; honour”) with a change of conjugation, recorded before 1313.^[4][11][9] It rests chiefly on a line of Dante (Inferno XII, 120), and modern commentators often read the passage instead as the first colare, a heart that “still drips” blood.^[12][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 272
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET