costa

Forms

costa f (plural coste)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin costa (“rib; side, flank”).^[2][3][4][1] The word is common to the Romance languages: French côte, Catalan costa, Spanish cuesta, Portuguese costa, Sardinian costa, Romanian coastă, Friulian kueste and Dalmatian kuasta.^[3][5] Its figurative senses, “slope of a hill” and “coast”, are found across the Romance languages and are therefore thought to be older than them: a document of 944 already uses Medieval Latin costa for a mountainside.^[3][6] Old Italian also used costa as an adverb and preposition, “beside”, like Old French decoste.^[6][7]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[8][1] It has long been compared with Old Church Slavonic кость (kostĭ, “bone”), and Nocentini and Devoto derive both from a variant with ⟨k-⟩ of the Indo-European root of osso.^[3][9][10] De Vaan rejects the link, because the Latin outcome of that root is os (“bone”) and the Latin word means “rib”, not “bone”, and he regards costa as an isolated word without an etymology.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Sienese document of 1221, in the sense of land along the sea or a slope.^[11] DELI dates the sense “strip of land along the sea” to Mino da Colle (before 1287) and “rib” to Brunetto Latini (before 1294), who tells that woman was made from man's rib.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

Dante has costa for the flank of the body, as in “he neither moved his neck nor bent his side” (né mosse collo, né piegò sua costa), for the side of a thing and for the ribs of a ship.^[2][13] Boccaccio describes the coast near Salerno that people call la Costa d'Amalfi.^[13] Later senses include the spine of a book (Cellini, before 1571), the ridge between furrows (Soderini, before 1597) and the midrib of a leaf (1809).^[2]

In the anatomical sense the diminutive costola (14th century) has become the usual word.^[2][4] Derivatives include costato (early 13th century), costeggiare (before 1348), costiera (c. 1350) and costata (1892).^[2] Modern costa is the coast and a mountain slope (a mezza costa, halfway up), the stalk of celery or chard (coste, chard), a rib in knitting or in cordured velvet (velluto a coste), and in Rome a cut of meat.^{[4][14][15][16]} French côtelette, from the same Latin word, came back into Italian as cotoletta.^[5][2] German borrowed Costa in 1515.^[17]

Timeline

• 944 – Medieval Latin costa de monte is recorded.^[6]
• 1221 – A Sienese document has costa.^[11]
• Before 1287 – Mino da Colle uses it for the coast.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for a rib.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for the flank, a ship's rib and the side of a thing.^[2]
• Before 1348 – Costeggiare is recorded in Giovanni Villani.^[2]
• 1515 – German Costa is recorded.^[17]
• Before 1571 – Cellini uses it for the spine of a book.^[2]
• 1809 – It is recorded for the midrib of a leaf.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. coast, the strip of land where it meets the sea; also the region along the sea: D'estate andiamo sempre sulla costa ligure.^[15][16][18]
2. The side of a mountain or hill, a slope: Il paese sorge a mezza costa.^[15][16][19]
3. (anatomy) rib; the usual word is costola.^[4][14][15]
4. (literary) Side, flank, of the body or of a thing.^[4][14][15]
5. The back of a blade, opposite the edge; the spine of a book.^[4][14]
6. (botany) The midrib of a leaf; the edible stalk of some vegetables, such as celery, (in the plural) chard.^[4][15][16]
7. A raised rib in a fabric or in knitting: velluto a coste.^[15][14][16]
8. (nautical) Each of the curved members that rise from the keel and carry the planking of a hull.^[15][14]
9. (Rome) A cut of meat from the back of a slaughtered animal.^[14][1]

Word family

• costeggiare
• costiera
• costiero
• costata
• costina
• costone
• accostare
• scostare
• discostare

Related words

• costato
• costola
• cotoletta
• costale
• Latin costa
• French côte

Usage notes

Costa is also the third person singular present of costare.^[20] Velluto a coste (corduroy) and a mezza costa (halfway up a slope) are set phrases.^[14][16][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1133
7. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
20. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org