cosso

Forms

cosso m (plural cossi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cossus (“woodworm; grub”), a word that Pliny uses for a worm that bores into wood.^[2][3][1] The sense “pimple” is the popular one, and it has a match in Romanian coș “pimple”.^[3][1] Zingarelli calls the word learned, and the zoological sense was taken in the 19th century from the scientific Latin genus name New Latin Cossus.^[4][2][5] Körting proposed instead that the sense “small bump” came from concosso, the participle of a verb from Latin concutiō (“to shake”).^[6]

Other descendants of the Latin word are French cosson “grain weevil”, and Romansh and the dialects of Trentino have kos “grub”.^[3][6]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown, and Devoto found no Indo-European connection.^[7][8] The GDLI thinks it probably Etruscan.^[9] Festus records that men with wrinkled bodies were called by the same name, after the worms born in wood.^[9] Wiktionary lists several uncertain proposals, among them a link with Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Francesco da Barberino's Reggimento (1318–1320), a Tuscan text, in the sense “pimple on the face”.^[10] Tommaseo quotes it: a remedy left one girl's face full of warts, e all'altra di cossi (“and the other's of pimples”).^[11]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word for a sudden bad mood that makes someone behave unpleasantly.^[10] Prati found this sense of “pique” in Sacchetti, and the sense of a lump on cucumbers and gourds in Bellincioni.^[12] Popular Italian also had mal del cosso “earache”, which Meyer-Lübke traced to the idea of a worm.^[3] Old medical texts recommend remedies against the cossi of the face.^[11]

GRADIT dates the insect sense to before 1498, and the GDLI quotes Landino's Pliny, in which cossi are worms born in wood.^[13][9] In the 19th century zoologists used the name for the genus of large night moths whose larvae bore into tree trunks.^[2][14] Today the pimple sense is old and Tuscan, and the moth is the main meaning.^[15][13]

Timeline

• 1318–1320 – Francesco da Barberino uses cosso “pimple”, the first record.^[10]
• Before 1498 – The date GRADIT gives for the sense “moth”.^[13]
• 19th century – The word becomes the name of a genus of moths.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) The goat moth (Cossus cossus), a large grey night moth whose larva digs tunnels in the trunks of trees, also called perdilegno or rodilegno.^{[13][16][5][17]}
2. (zoology, capitalised) The genus Cossus of the family Cossidae.^[13]
3. (regional, archaic) A small pimple or pustule on the face.^[13][15][1]
4. (archaic, figurative) A sudden fit of bad temper, pique.^[17][4][10]

Word family

• cosside

Related words

• Latin cossus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1133
3. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 120
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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, 892
10. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 339
13. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli