corteccia

Forms

corteccia f (plural cortecce)^[1] Other old forms are Old Italian cortecia, Old Italian chortecia and Old Italian corteça.^[2] A rare masculine Old Italian corteccio is found in Sannazaro.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin corticea, the feminine of the adjective corticeus (“made of bark”) used as a noun, from cortex (“bark”).^[4][5][1][6] Nocentini and Meyer-Lübke treat the noun as Vulgar Latin.^[7][8] The word belongs to central and northern Italy and the Iberian Peninsula: Spanish corteza and Portuguese cortiça are the same word, and it passed into Mozarabic and Berber.^[7][8][9] cortice is the learned form of the Latin noun.^[10][11]

De Vaan analyses the Latin noun as a stem ⟨cort-⟩ with the suffix ⟨-ex⟩ of plant words such as frutex (“shrub”).^[6] The stem may go back, like corium (“hide”), to Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”), with an enlargement ⟨*-t-⟩.^[6] DELI and Devoto also derive it from a root meaning “to cut”.^[4][12] Nocentini finds the same root in cena, and its simpler form in carne and coltello.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Bono Giamboni's translation of Orosius, from Florence, before 1292, for the outer covering of plants.^[2] DELI's first date is 1304, in Giordano da Pisa, for the protective outer layer of a tree's root and stem.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian soon widened the word to other coverings: the rind or shell of a fruit, the carapace of a tortoise, the crust of bread, and any outer layer.^[2][4] In the 14th century it could also mean the skin.^[9][11] Figuratively it was the literal surface of a text that hides its deeper meaning, and Boccaccio speaks of the meaning hidden sotto la bella corteccia delle parole (under the fine bark of the words).^[2][13]

The anatomical sense, the outer part of an organ, especially the brain, is recorded in Bellini, before 1704.^[4] Modern anatomy speaks of the corteccia cerebrale and the corteccia surrenale.^[14][15]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni's Orosius has the first record.^[2]
• 1304 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for the bark of trees.^[4][3]
• c. 1350 – The vernacular Crescenzi uses it for the outer layer of anything.^[4]
• Before 1704 – Bellini uses it for the outer part of an organ.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. bark: the outer covering of the trunk, branches and roots of trees.^[5][10][1]
2. (botany) The cortex of a plant, the tissues between the epidermis and the central cylinder: corteccia primaria, corteccia secondaria.^[5][14][13]
3. (poetic) A tree.^[5][16]
4. The outer part of something; the crust of bread or cheese, the rind of a fruit.^[5][14][10]
5. (figurative) Outward appearance: dietro quella corteccia burbera si nasconde un uomo generoso.^[5][14][10]
6. (anatomy) The cortex of an organ: corteccia cerebrale, corteccia surrenale.^[5][14][15]
7. (zoology) In corteccia serica, the layers of silk that form the silkworm's cocoon.^[15][13]

Word family

• scortecciare
• cortecciola
• corteccioso

Related words

• corticale
• scorticare
• cortice
• Latin cortex

Usage notes

Fermarsi alla corteccia means to stop at the surface of something, without going deeper.^[11][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1126
10. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli