cotta

cotta¹ cooking; crush

Etymology tree of cotta¹

inherited borrowed derived

Italian cotto

Italian cotta

Pronunciation

• /ˈkɔt.ta/^[1]

Forms

cotta f (plural cotte)^[1]

Etymology

The word for cooking and a crush is from Italian cotto (“cooked”), the feminine of the participle used as a noun.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The participle belongs to cuocere and continues Latin coctus, the past participle of coquō (“to cook”).^[2][3][6] DEI notes a Medieval Latin cocta at Parma in 1255.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Pegolotti's Pratica, of the first half of the 14th century, with the sense “cooking”.^[8] DELI's first date is a Florentine document of 1350–1366 on the castles of the commune, which speaks of lime made in due cotte “in two firings”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

From a firing of lime or bricks the word came to name the batch cooked at one time (Biringuccio, before 1537).^[2][9] Sugar and spirits were refined by repeated boiling: merchants sold zuccari fini di tre cotte.^[2][10] This is the source of furbo di tre cotte, someone sly in the highest degree.^[2][10]

Figurative uses followed: cotta “drunkenness” (before 1708), a sudden violent passion (1825), and in sport the collapse of an exhausted athlete (1942).^[2]

Timeline

• 1255 – Medieval Latin cocta at Parma.^[7]
• 1300–1350 – Pegolotti uses cotta for cooking.^[8]
• 1350–1366 – A Florentine document speaks of lime fired in due cotte.^[2][9]
• Before 1537 – Biringuccio uses it for a batch cooked at one time.^[2]
• Before 1708 – The sense “drunkenness”.^[2]
• 1825 – The sense “sudden passion”.^[2]
• 1942 – The sporting sense of an athlete's collapse.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Cooking, especially a quick first cooking: dare una prima cotta alle zucchine.^[4][11][12]
2. The quantity cooked or fired at one time, a batch: una cotta di calce.^[4][5][11]
3. A batch of cloth or garments dyed together.^[4][13]
4. (colloquial) Drunkenness.^[4][5][13]
5. (figurative) A crush, sudden and violent infatuation, often short-lived: prendersi una cotta per qualcuno.^{[4][5][13][1]}
6. (sport) The collapse of an athlete after long effort.^[4][5][11]
7. An earthenware pot.^[4][14]

Word family

• cottarella

cotta² surplice; tunic

Etymology tree of cotta²

inherited borrowed derived

French cotte

Italian cotta

Pronunciation

• /ˈkɔt.ta/^[1]

Forms

cotta f (plural cotte)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the tunic and surplice is borrowed from French cotte, recorded in French from 1138, from Frankish *kotta (“tunic, coarse woollen cloak”).^{[2][3][4][13][14]} Wiktionary traces it further to Proto-Germanic *kuttô.^[1] Nocentini compares German Kotze, and says that from the French word come Spanish cota and English coat.^[3] Meyer-Lübke instead brings the Italian word through Old Occitan cota.^[15] Prati notes Medieval Latin cottus in Peter Damian, who died in 1072.^[16]

DELI rejects as impossible in form the comparison Pagliaro made with a Middle Persian word for “shirt”.^[2] Earlier scholars had derived the Germanic words from Latin cutis (“skin”), but Kluge showed them to be native Germanic, as Zaccaria reports.^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century, for a garment worn by men and women.^[8] DELI's first date is the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, where a woman complains of her ugly cotta and her husband promises her a fine one.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word also named an undergarment and the white habit of clerics and religious.^[8] Villani describes penitents dressed in a white cotta and a blue cloak.^[10] The liturgical vestment worn by the priest in all services except the Mass is dated by DELI to Bencivenni in the 14th century.^[2]

The military uses came later: Boiardo, before 1494, has the cotta d'arme worn by knights and heralds over the armour, and the cotta di maglia was a coat of iron mail worn until plate armour replaced it.^[2][6][13]

Timeline

• 1072 – Medieval Latin cottus is recorded in Peter Damian, who died this year.^[16]
• 1138 – French cotte is recorded.^[2][4]
• 1175–1200 – Cotta in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur.^[8]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses cotta for a woman's tunic.^[2]
• 1300s – Bencivenni uses it for the liturgical vestment.^[2]
• Before 1494 – Boiardo uses it for the surcoat worn over armour.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) A wide medieval tunic with long sleeves, worn by men and women as an outer garment.^[4][5][11]
2. (history) A garment worn over armour: cotta d'arme, a knight's or herald's surcoat;^[5][13][6] cotta di maglia, a coat of chain mail.^[5][13][6]
3. (ecclesiastical) A surplice, a white knee-length linen or cotton vestment with wide sleeves worn by priests and altar servers.^{[4][5][11][1]}

Word family

• cotticella