costo

Forms

costo m (plural costi)^[1]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Italian costare (“to cost”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The verb is from Latin cōnstō (“to stand firm; to cost, be worth”).^[2][3] The Latin verb is formed from stō (“to stand, remain”) with the prefix con-, and meant “to remain fixed, have a constant value”.^[3]

The verb is found across the Romance languages: French coûter, Occitan costar, Catalan costar, Spanish costar, Portuguese custar and Sardinian costare, while Romanian custa means “to live”.^[3][6] Nouns formed from the verb in the same way are French coût and Spanish costo.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Sienese letter of 1260, where the word means the expense needed to buy goods or meet a need.^[5][7] DELI's earliest dated examples are the figurative sense “risk, effort, sacrifice” in the 13th-century poet Monte Andrea and the sense of money spent to acquire something in Iacopone, who died in 1306.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word in several commercial senses: senza costo “free of charge”, primo costo “the initial price of goods before taxes”, the interest asked for a loan, and the ransom paid for hostages or a town.^[5] The figurative sense of suffering, pain or toil also goes back to the early texts, and the phrase dare il costo a qualcuno meant to beat someone in revenge or punishment.^[5] Boccaccio has a lover who enjoyed his miserly lady senza costo, “without cost”.^[8]

The senses “expense” and “interest on money lent, usury” have since become archaic.^[4][9][1] In economics the word took on technical uses such as total cost, production cost and marginal cost.^[10][7] The adjective costoso is recorded in the sense “demanding effort” in 1699 and in the sense “expensive” in 1789.^[2]

Modern Greek borrowed the Italian word as Modern Greek κόστος (kóstos).^[1]

Timeline

• 1260 – Costo appears in a Sienese letter.^[5]
• 13th century – Monte Andrea uses the word for “risk, effort, sacrifice”.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for the money spent to acquire something.^[2]
• 1699 – Costoso is recorded in the sense “demanding effort”.^[2]
• 1789 – Costoso is recorded in the sense “expensive”.^[2]
• 1960 – Sottocosto “below cost” is first recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. cost, price: the money needed to buy goods or services or to produce them: Il costo dei traghetti è salito quest’anno.^{[4][11][9][1]}
2. (economics) The total expense borne in producing goods or services, as in costo di produzione, costo del lavoro (labour cost) and costo del denaro (the cost of borrowing).^[7][12][11]
3. (figurative) Effort, sacrifice or hardship that something requires: a costo di “at the risk of”, a ogni costo and a tutti i costi “at all costs”, a nessun costo “on no account”.^[4][9][7][1]
4. (archaic) Expense, outlay.^[4][13][1]
5. (archaic) Interest on money lent; usury.^{[4][9][12][1]}

Word family

• costoso
• sottocosto

Related words

• costare
• constare
• Latin cōnstō

Usage notes

Common fixed phrases are costo della vita “cost of living” and a prezzo di costo “at cost price, without profit”.^[12][7] Costo is also the first person singular present of costare (io costo).^[1]

A separate, learned costo names the costus, an aromatic plant of India (Saussurea lappa) whose root was used in medicine and perfumery; it comes from Latin costum, from Ancient Greek κόστος (kóstos), which was itself borrowed from Sanskrit.^{[4][14][15][1]} This word is first recorded in Zucchero's Santà of 1310.^[5] In dialect a third costo means the tuft or stool of a plant, a word Pascoli used.^[16][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 e 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 c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 904
11. ^ a b 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 c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1135
15. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 905