costato

Forms

costato m (plural costati)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian costado, Old Italian costadho, Old Italian costao and Old Italian custatu.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *costātum, the neuter used as a noun of Latin costātus (“having ribs”), from costa (“rib; side”).^{[5][6][7][8][9][1]} The adjective is in Varro;^{[10][4][11][12]} Meyer-Lübke sets up the noun with the sense “side”.^{[10][4][11][12]}

The same word is French côté, which replaced the older word from Latin latus (“side”), and Occitan costat, Catalan costat, Spanish costado and Portuguese costado.^[13][11][1]

The origin of the Latin noun is unknown.^[14][1] It has been compared with Proto-Slavic *kostь (“bone”), but de Vaan rejects the link, since the Slavic word probably goes back to a form that gave Latin os (“bone”), and takes the Latin word for an isolated one.^[14][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cremonese poet Uguccione da Lodi, early in the 13th century, of Christ’s wound: Poi lo ferì dal destro lato / d'una lancia per lo costato (“Then he struck him on the right side with a lance through the ribs”).^[15][2][4] The sense is the wall of the chest, the part of the body formed by the ribs.^[15][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian extended the word to “side, flank”, and used it in architecture for the rib of a vault.^[2] The figurative “side” is in an old exposition of the Paternoster, where the understanding and the will are the two costati of the heart.^[16] In the Decameron Boccaccio has Giosefo beat her or per lo costato, or per l'anche (now on the ribs, now on the hips).^[4][16]

The senses “side” and di costato “sideways” are now obsolete, as is the ship's side; the butcher's sense, the forequarter of cattle with the last seven ribs, also called costata, is current.^[3][9][17]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses costato of Christ’s wound.^[15][2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The chest wall, the part of the body where the ribs are: Sentiva una fitta al costato.^[9][6][7][1]
2. (butchery) The part of the forequarter of a slaughtered animal with the last seven ribs.^[9][18][7]
3. (obsolete) Side, flank;^[9][3][19] di costato, sideways.^[9][3][19]
4. (obsolete, nautical) The side of a ship;^[9][3] vento di costato, a wind blowing across it.^[9][3]

Related words

• costa
• costola
• costata

Usage notes

Costato is also the past participle of costare, “cost”, as in Villani's venne costato… fiorini undici d'oro il moggio (it came to cost eleven gold florins the bushel).^[9][16] A separate botanical adjective costato, recorded from 1956, describes fruit with ribs running lengthwise, the same as costoluto; it is formed from costa with the suffix -ato.^[9][6][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1134
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
19. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli