cortina

Forms

cortina f (plural cortine)^[1] Venetian has coltrina, crossed with coltrice.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin cortina (“curtain”).^[3][4][5][6] DELI calls it a learned word, while Wiktionary has it inherited.^[3][1] It is recorded as Medieval Latin cortina (“curtain”) at Rome in the 8th century and at the Maiella in the 11th.^[7]

For DELI and Battisti–Alessio it is the classical Latin cortīna (“round vessel, cauldron”), used for the cauldron-shaped tripod of Apollo, which took on the sense “curtain” in the Itala, the Vulgate and Isidore as a calque of Ancient Greek αὐλαία (aulaía, “curtain”).^[3][7] Nocentini, Treccani, the GDLI and Wiktionary instead see a new formation from cohors (“courtyard”), stem cort-, modelled on the Greek word, which is formed from αὐλή (aulḗ, “courtyard”).^[4][6][8][1] Wiktionary calls it unrelated to the cauldron word.^[1] The origin of the classical word is unknown; a link with curvus (“curved”) has been proposed, but de Vaan finds it unfounded.^[9][6][1]

The same word is French courtine, whence the English word curtain, and Occitan cortina, Catalan cortina, Spanish cortina and Portuguese cortina.^[4][2] Körting thought the German Gardine a reshaping of the French word.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma of 1252–1258, for a hanging that divides a room, decorates it or gives shade.^[11][4] DELI's first date is 1305, in the Libri Gallerani, for a curtain that closes off or protects a room.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used cortina for bed curtains, sacred hangings, a kind of net and a kind of cloth.^[11] Boccaccio has dentro alla cortina trapassato (“having passed inside the curtain”) of a bed,^[12] and Ariosto uses it for the theatre curtain: quale al cader de le cortine suole / parer fra mille lampade la scena (“as the stage appears among a thousand lamps when the curtains fall”).^[13][6]

In fortification, cortina is the stretch of wall between two towers or bastions, recorded before 1565 in Varchi.^[3] Battisti–Alessio connect this sense with French courtine (16th century) and earlier Occitan, and note it in Lombardy in the 14th century.^[7] The figurative sense, anything that blocks sight or contact, is recorded before 1861 in Nievo.^[3] Cortina di ferro is a calque of the English iron curtain, which owes its success to Churchill's speech at Fulton on 5 March 1946; a German der eiserne Vorhang had been used in a radio message by Schwerin von Krosigk on 2 May 1945.^[3][7]

The classical sense came back as a learned word: from the 14th century cortina is the tripod of Apollo at Delphi, where the Pythia gave the oracles, and the veil around it.^[11][13][14] Annibal Caro writes questa di Febo attonita cortina (“this awestruck tripod of Phoebus”).^[8]

Timeline

• 1252–1258 – The Storie de Troia e de Roma has cortina “curtain”.^[11]
• 1303 – Cortine “land next to the town” is recorded at Siena.^[11]
• 1305 – The Libri Gallerani have cortina.^[3]
• 1321–1337 – Accurso di Cremona uses cortina for the tripod of Apollo.^[11]
• 16th century – Cortinaggio “set of curtains” is first recorded.^[3]
• Before 1565 – Varchi uses the fortification sense.^[3]
• Before 1861 – Nievo uses the figurative sense “barrier to sight”.^[3]
• 1950 – Cortina di ferro is recorded beside sipario di ferro.^[3]
• 1964 – Cortinario, a mushroom named after its veil, is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A curtain that divides a room or hides part of it; one of the curtains round a four-poster bed.^[13][14][15]
2. (archaic, literary) A theatre curtain, sipario.^[13][14][15]
3. Anything that blocks sight or passage, such as a screen of smoke or fog; also figurative: Una cortina di vapore nascondeva la valle.^[13][5][16]
4. (fortification) The curtain wall between two towers or bastions.^[13][5][17]
5. (architecture) A facing of plain brickwork.^[5][17]
6. (military) The space between two strongpoints of a defensive line.^[13][17]
7. (mycology) The cobweb-like remnant of the veil that hangs from the cap of some mushrooms.^[13]
8. (historical, literary) The tripod of Apollo at Delphi, or the sacred veil round it.^[13][14][6]

Word family

• cortinaggio
• cortinario
• cortinare
• incortinare

Related words

• corte
• Latin cortīna
• French courtine
• English curtain

Usage notes

In Old Italian and the dialects, cortina is also the land next to a town and a small plot of land; the GDLI, the TLIO and the LEI derive it from corte, and Sabatini–Coletti see it in the place name Cortina d'Ampezzo.^{[8][11][18][5]} GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti have a separate cortina (1956), an extract of the adrenal cortex, formed from cortico- and -ina.^[13][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1127
8. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 865
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
18. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 609