conciare

Forms

conciare (first-person singular present cóncio, first-person singular past historic conciài, past participle conciàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Northern Italian has Venetian conzar and Sicilian cunzari;^[1][2] DEI sees the Tuscan word as an adaptation of the northern conzare.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *comptiāre (“to adorn”), a verb formed from Latin comptus (“adorned, elegant”), the past participle of cōmō (“to arrange, adorn”).^[3][4][5][1] Devoto and Devoto–Oli pass through a noun *comptium (“preparation for adornment”).^[6][7] That verb is emō (“to take”) with the prefix co-, at first “to take together, gather”; the sense “to arrange the hair, adorn” came under the influence of coma (“hair”).^[4][8]

The LEI holds the verb to be Latin already, since it is found in Friulian cuinzâ and across Italy, and Engadine has cuntschar.^[9][10] DEI calls it otherwise unknown to the Romance languages, and Spanish aconchar is a loan from Italian acconciare, as is Catalan acunçar.^[2][10] Medieval Latin conciare is well documented from the early 10th century, in the ⟨Codex Cavensis⟩.^[2][6] The adjective concio is a shortened past participle, and the noun of the same spelling, “squared stone”, is formed from the verb with no suffix.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Pistoia document from the end of the 12th century, in the sense “to bring to an agreement, make peace”.^[11] The derivative conciatura is older still, in a Pisan charter of the early 12th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Old Italian verb meant above all “to put in order, prepare”: to train hawks, to forge metal, to dress stone, to prepare food, to anoint a body for burial, to manure a field and to treat a raw hide.^[11] The tanner's sense is first dated in the Sienese statutes of 1298, and the Pisan tanners' statute rules on tanning the hides of oxen, cows and horses.^[3][8]

The ironic sense “to damage, ruin, beat” is as old: Iacopone (before 1306) and Dante have it, and Dante's Gianni Schicchi goes about “altrui così conciando” (“mauling others thus”).^[3][9][12] From the 14th and 15th centuries it was also used for squaring building stones into conci.^[3] In modern Italian the tanner's and the ironic senses dominate: conciare per le feste is to give someone a thrashing.^[5][12] The reflexive conciarsi is to get oneself dirty or to dress badly.^[13][14] In the sense “fix, set right” it is less common than acconciare.^[12]

Timeline

• Early 12th century – Conciatura appears in a Pisan charter.^[3]
• Late 12th century – A Pistoia document has the verb in the sense “make peace”.^[11]
• 1260 – A Sienese letter uses it for ill-treating someone.^[9]
• 1293 – Conciatore is recorded.^[3]
• 1298 – The Sienese statutes use it for tanning hides.^[3][5]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for “spoil, damage”.^[3]
• 14th–15th centuries – A treatise on glass-making uses it for squaring building stones.^[3]
• 1806 – Conceria “tannery” is recorded in a Milanese print.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tan hides; to cure or treat tobacco, olives, flax and other products: Il nonno conciava le pelli di capra.^{[5][7][15][1]}
2. (uncommon) To fix, mend, set right.^[5][7][14]
3. To dress someone, usually badly or in poor taste.^[5][7]
4. To spoil, ruin or dirty something; to beat someone up: conciare per le feste, to give someone a good thrashing.^{[5][7][13][15]}
5. To dress or square building stones; to cut gems or marble.^[5][15][1]
6. (regional) To season food, especially salad.^[5][7][14]
7. (veterinary) To castrate calves or pigs.^[16][1]
8. (archaic) To train birds; to reconcile people; to correct a piece of writing; to manure land.^[7][14][5]

Reflexive verb

1. conciarsi: to get oneself into a bad state, to get dirty; to dress badly or oddly.^[13][14][16]

Word family

• concia
• concio
• conceria
• conciatore
• conciatura
• conciario
• concime
• acconciare
• racconciare
• sconciare

Related words

• Latin comptus

Usage notes

DEI lists a separate dialect verb conciare “to soil” (Piedmont, Sicily), from Latin concacō (“to befoul”) through Provençal, spelled the same.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1046
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 16, 658
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli