costura

Forms

costura f (plural costure)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian custura, Old Italian gostura and Old Italian chostura.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *consūtūra (“seam”), a noun from cōnsūtus, the past participle of Latin cōnsuō (“to sew together”).^[3][4][1][5] Nocentini writes the Vulgar Latin form *cosūtūra, and DELI and Zingarelli a shortened *cōnsūra.^[3][6][7] Devoto thought the form was influenced by costa (“rib”).^[8]

The same Latin noun gave French couture, Occitan cosdura, Catalan costura, Spanish costura and Portuguese costura, and in the Engadine kuzdüra.^[3][5] The verb is formed from Latin con- + suō (“to sew”).^[6][1] The second part goes back to Proto-Indo-European *siuH- (“to sew”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Sienese document of 1277–1282.^[2] DELI's first example is in the Fiore (1280–1310), in the sense “seam joining two pieces of fabric or leather”.^[6] There the speaker's purse is san costura (“without a seam”).^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for the act of sewing, for the seam itself, and in medicine for the stitching of a wound.^[2] Dante calls the iron wire that sews shut the eyes of the envious in Purgatory an orribile costura.^[11] The seamless tunic of Christ is senza costura in the old Bible translations.^[2][11]

The phrase ritrovare le costure (later spianare or scuotere le costure) meant “to give someone a beating”.^[2][7] Tommaseo explains it by the tailors, who beat a finished seam to flatten it.^[11] Shoemakers used the word for a seam that does not go through the whole thickness of the leather, and Magalotti for the seams between the planks of a boat.^[10] In hand-knitted stockings it became the purl-stitch line down the back.^[4][12]

The French derivative couturier gave Sicilian and Calabrian custurieri “tailor”, and Spanish costurón gave Sicilian custuruni “scar”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1277–1282 – A Sienese document has costura, the first record.^[2]
• 1280–1310 – The Fiore uses it for a seam.^[6]
• 1282 – The date Zingarelli gives for the first record.^[7]
• 1310 – The date Nocentini and GRADIT give.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A seam, often raised, that joins two pieces of cloth, leather and the like: la costura della gonna.^{[4][14][15][7]}
2. The seam at the back of hand-knitted stockings, made in purl stitch.^{[4][14][7][12]}

Word family

• costurino
• scosturato

Related words

• cucire
• sutura
• French couture
• Latin cōnsuō

Usage notes

Costura aperta is a seam with the edges pressed open with the iron, and costura ribattuta a seam with one edge folded over the other.^[7] Cucire a tre costure is “to sew with a triple seam”.^[4] The figurative spianare le costure a qualcuno or scuotere le costure a qualcuno, “to give someone a beating”, is now dated.^[7][4][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
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 d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 121
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 914
11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1136
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli