corazza

Forms

corazza f (plural corazze)^[1] The old texts have Old Italian coraza, choraza, coraça and corace.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *coriācea (“made of leather”), the feminine of coriāceus used as a noun, with a word for a garment understood.^[3][4][5][1] The adjective is from Latin corium (“skin, hide, leather”).^[3][4][6]

The expected Tuscan outcome would be ⟨coriaccia⟩, so DELI, following Castellani, takes the word to have come from the north of Italy.^[3] DEI agrees that northern Italy was probably the centre from which it spread, pointing to Medieval Latin coraza at Padua and curazia at Bologna in 1255.^[7][3] Devoto describes the northern change of -ria- to -ra- and of /tʃa/ to /ssa/, which Tuscan then corrected to -zza.^[8]

The same formation is French cuirasse (1266), Occitan coirasa, Spanish coraza and Portuguese couraça.^[4][7][9] Meyer-Lübke held that these were borrowed from Italian.^[9]

The Latin noun is from Proto-Italic *korjom.^[1] De Vaan derives it from a Proto-Indo-European noun meaning “that which is torn off, peeled off”, hence “bark, skin”, and compares Sanskrit चर्मन् (cárman, “hide, skin”).^[10] Wiktionary traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin curazia is recorded at Bologna in 1255; the first Italian records are in Florentine texts of 1284 and in Bono Giamboni's translation of Vegetius, before 1292, as the armour protecting the torso.^[3][2] Such armour was made of metal or of leather and usually in two pieces.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word could mean a coat of steel mail, a figurative shield or defence (before 1380, Catherine of Siena), and the protective husk of a fruit or seed.^[2][3] Leon Battista Alberti, before 1472, used it for the bony or horny covering of animals.^[3] From the 16th to the 18th century a corazza was also a soldier in such armour, the later corazziere.^[7][11]

The 19th century brought the armour plating of warships, recorded in Tommaseo in 1865, and with it corazzata “battleship” (1875), modelled on French cuirassé;^[3] corazziere, from French cuirassier, had been recorded since 1604.^[3] In modern Italian the word also names the protective padding of players in American football and similar sports, the concrete revetment of river banks, and the shielding of instruments against magnetic fields.^[6][5]

German borrowed the word as Coratzen at the end of the 15th century.^[12]

Timeline

• 1255 – Medieval Latin curazia is recorded at Bologna.^[3]
• 1284 – Corazza appears in Florentine texts.^[3]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it in his translation of Vegetius.^[3][2]
• Before 1380 – Catherine of Siena uses it figuratively for a defence.^[3]
• Before 1472 – Leon Battista Alberti applies it to the shell of animals.^[3]
• Late 15th century – German Coratzen is recorded.^[12]
• 1604 – Corazziere “cuirassier” is first recorded.^[3]
• 1797 – The verb corazzare is recorded.^[3]
• 1865 – Tommaseo records the sense “protective plating”.^[3]
• 1875 – Corazzata “battleship” is recorded as a noun.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cuirass: armour protecting the torso, of leather or more often steel, in use until the 17th century and still worn as part of the dress uniform of some special corps.^[6][5]
2. (zoology) The bony or horny covering of many animals, such as the tortoise; also the exoskeleton of crustaceans and other arthropods.^[6][13]
3. (figurative) A shield or defence: Il suo sarcasmo è una corazza.^[6][5]
4. (military) Steel armour plating of tanks and warships; a concrete structure in permanent fortifications that resists artillery fire.^[6][14]
5. (sports) Protective padding worn on the chest in ice hockey, American football, fencing and similar sports.^[6][13]
6. (engineering) A revetment of cement blocks protecting the banks of a watercourse.^[5][15]
7. An antimagnetic screen protecting sensitive electrical instruments.^[6]
8. (chiefly plural) A corazziere.^[6]

Word family

• corazzare
• corazzato
• corazzata
• corazziere
• corazzatura
• corazzino

Related words

• cuoio
• coriaceo
• Latin corium
• French cuirasse

Usage notes

Mezza corazza is a half cuirass, the same as corsaletto.^[16][15] Corazza alla prova or corazza da botta was a cuirass proof-tested against musket or pistol shot.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1102
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 329
12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli