coscia

Forms

coscia f (plural cosce)^[1] Old Italian also had cossa and coxa.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin coxa (“hip”).^[4][5][6][1] In Latin the word meant first the hip and the hip joint; in Romance it came to mean the thigh almost everywhere.^[5][7] The same word is French cuisse, Occitan cueisa, Portuguese coxa and Romanian coapsă.^[5][7] DEI suggests that the classical Latin femur (“thigh”) was given up because it sounded like a Vulgar Latin word for dung.^[8] Through a derivative, Old French coissin, the same Latin word is the source of cuscino.^[7][9]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *koḱs- (“limb, joint”), with cognates in Old Irish coss (“foot”) and words for “armpit” in Sanskrit and Avestan.^[10][1][5] Nocentini adds Old High German hahsa (“hollow of the knee”), a comparison de Vaan rejects.^[5][10] DEI and REW take Welsh coes (“leg”) as a loan from Latin, while Wiktionary counts it as a native cognate.^[8][7][1]

The sound ⟨sc⟩ /ʃ/ is not the expected outcome everywhere: Old Abruzzese had Old Italian cossa (1440), and Abruzzese and northern Calabrian dialects still have forms with /ss/, and DEI holds that the literary form with ⟨sc⟩ came from the north and spread to the southern dialects too.^[8] REW found the contrast between the standard form and the central and southern forms with /ss/ unexplained, and judged the proposed influence of Vulgar Latin *intercoxium and a base Vulgar Latin *coxea unlikely.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma of 1252–1258, in the sense “thigh”, the part of the leg between the hip and the knee.^[2][5] DELI's first example of this sense is from Dante, before 1321, but the sense “abutment of a bridge” is already found in Malispini in the 13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word for the leg of an animal, as meat, and for a side or edge;^[2][11] Dante's la detta coscia del carro is the side of the chariot.^[2][11] The sense “ham” in the Casentino, noted in the 18th century, is already found in a 6th-century Latin translation of Oribasius.^[8][12]

Technical senses followed: each of the two posts of a printing press (1681, Baldinucci), and the part of trousers covering the thigh (before 1861, Ippolito Nievo).^[4] Pera coscia and coscia di monaca name varieties of pears and plums from their shape.^[12][13] Coscio (1863) and cosciotto (1846) name the leg of a slaughtered animal as a cut of meat.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 1252–1258 – The Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma have the first record.^[2][5]
• 13th century – Malispini uses the word for the abutment of a bridge.^[4]
• 1281–1297 – Cosciale, armour for the thighs, is recorded.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses coscia for the thigh.^[4]
• 1681 – Filippo Baldinucci uses it for the posts of a printing press.^[4]
• 1846 – Cosciotto is first recorded with certainty.^[4]
• Before 1861 – Ippolito Nievo uses it for the thigh of trousers.^[4]
• 1863 – Coscio is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The thigh, the part of the leg between the hip and the knee, whose bone is the femur.^[6][11][14]
2. The corresponding part of an animal, especially as meat; a cut of beef from it: Per cena c'è coscia di tacchino al forno.^[6][11][15]
3. The part of trousers that covers the thigh.^[6][11][15]
4. The part of a bridge resting on the bank.^[6][15]
5. (artillery) Each of the two side pieces of a gun carriage.^[6][15]
6. Each of the two posts that hold up a printing press.^[15][16]
7. (literary, archaic) Side, edge.^[6][11]
8. Pera coscia, coscia di donna: a soft, juicy variety of pear;^[11][15] coscia di monaca: a variety of plum.^[11][15]

Word family

• cosciale
• coscio
• cosciotto
• accosciarsi
• scosciare
• scoscio
• sovraccoscia

Related words

• cuscino
• Latin coxa
• French cuisse

Usage notes

The plural is cosce; the literary plural coscie is also found.^[15]

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. ^ 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 i j k 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 h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1129
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli