cotogno

Forms

cotogno m (plural cotogni)^[1] The TLIO records the forms Old Italian codogni, cógno and cuogni.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cotoneus, the adjective in cotōneum (“quince”), short for “quince apple” (mālum (“apple”)).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin word is first recorded of the fruit.^[4]

Latin also had cydōneus, from Ancient Greek κυδώνιον (kudṓnion) “of Cydonia”, after Ancient Greek Κυδωνία (Kudōnía), a town on Crete (now Chania).^[5][6][7][1] Pliny wrote that the fruits called by the one name in Latin and by the other in Greek were brought from Crete.^[8] Devoto and Sabatini–Coletti explain the Latin form in ⟨cot-⟩ as the Greek word passed through Etruscan, which turned ⟨d⟩ into ⟨t⟩.^[9][10] Nocentini finds the relation of the two Latin forms unclear and the Cretan origin of the tree unproven: the fruit may have come from Asia Minor, like most fruit trees, and the town of Kytṓnion there would then make the form in ⟨cot-⟩ the older one, reshaped as the form in ⟨cyd-⟩ after Cydonia.^[4] The GDLI also finds Asia Minor more likely, and the OLD treats the Latin and Greek words as related but not one borrowed from the other.^[8][11]

The same Latin word gave French coing, Occitan codonh, Catalan codony and the second part of Spanish melocotón, which names the peach.^[4][12] It was borrowed early into Old High German kutina.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Italian translation of Palladius from about 1340, for the fruit tree of the rose family, Cydonia vulgaris.^[3][2] The same text has melo cotogno, the quince apple tree.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The Italian Crescenzi distinguishes trees that bear pere cotogne, quince pears, longer in shape, from those that bear mele cotogne, quince apples, with broader leaves.^[14] From the 14th century the fruit was cotogna, and a jam of quinces was cotognato (1344), later cotognata (1544).^[3][4] The word also served as an adjective, as in a Paduan text of about 1390.^[2]

Gardeners have long used the quince as a rootstock for grafting pears: “Il pero in sul cotogno vien presto, e presto se ne va” (the pear on the quince comes quickly and goes quickly).^[14][8] The cotogno del Giappone is an ornamental shrub of the same family.^[5][7]

Timeline

• c. 1340 – The Italian Palladius has the first record of cotogno and cotognito “quince jam”.^[3][2]
• 1344 – Medieval Latin cotunnata is recorded at the papal court, and Italian cotognato in the Libro della Mensa.^[3]
• c. 1390 – Cotogno is used as an adjective in a Paduan translation of Serapion.^[2]
• 1544 – Cotognata “quince jam” appears in Mattioli's Dioscorides.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quince tree (Cydonia vulgaris), a small tree of the rose family with oval leaves downy beneath, pinkish-white flowers and hard, fragrant fruit used for jams and jellies; also called melo cotogno.^{[5][6][15][1]}
2. (rare) The quince fruit, cotogna.^[15][16]

Adjective

1. Of the quince: melo cotogno, pero cotogno, mela cotogna.^[10][17][5]

Word family

• cotogna
• cotognata
• cotognastro
• cotogneto

Related words

• Latin cotoneum
• French coing

Usage notes

In veterinary language cotogno was also said of a horse's foot that is too narrow and misshapen.^[14][18] DEI derives this sense from cotogna, the foot being swollen like a quince.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 121
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 341
14. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1138