cottura

Forms

cottura f (plural cotture)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin coctūra (“cooking”), a noun formed from coctus (“cooked”), the past participle of coquō (“to cook”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The word is pan-Romance except in Sardinian and Portuguese: Romanian coptură (“ulcer”), Friulian cuture, Old French cuiture, Old Occitan coitura (“cauterisation”), Catalan cuitura (“scald”) and Spanish cochura.^[6][5][7]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook”), with the first consonant assimilated to the second; the same root is in Ancient Greek πέσσω (péssō, “to cook”) and Lithuanian kepti (“to bake”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's earliest record is Old Romanesco cuttura “a batch of baking, a full oven”, in glosses of about 1100.^[5] Nocentini dates the word to the end of the 13th century, the TLIO's first example is in Bosone da Gubbio (before 1333), and DELI's first date is the translation of Crescenzi of about 1350, for the act or result of cooking.^[2][9][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used cottura for the action of heat on a substance, for a decoction, and for a burn or scald and the mark it leaves, with the medical sense “cauterisation”.^[9][5] The burn sense is now obsolete.^[3][11][12] The Tommaseo distinguished cottura, the degree to which a thing is cooked, from cocitura, the cooking itself, and records the word for the roasting of ores.^[13]

Figurative senses, “falling in love” and “drunkenness”, are recorded from the 18th century, the same ones as in cotta.^[6][4] Technical senses followed in papermaking, the cooking of wood chips into pulp, and in forestry, a staining defect of felled trunks.^[3][14][15] Modern compounds include angolo cottura, the kitchenette of a small flat, and piano di cottura, the hob.^[3][11]

Timeline

• About 1100 – Old Romanesco cuttura “a batch of baking” is recorded in glosses.^[5]
• Before 1333 – Bosone da Gubbio uses cottura.^[9]
• About 1350 – The translation of Crescenzi has cottura for cooking.^[10]
• About 1537 – Biringuccio uses cottura.^[5]
• 18th century – The figurative senses “falling in love” and “drunkenness” appear.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. cooking: the cooking of food, or the firing of materials such as bricks and pottery, and its result; also the time this takes: tre ore di cottura a fuoco basso.^{[3][11][14][16]}
2. (papermaking) The stage in which chipped wood is turned into raw pulp by cooking under pressure.^[3][14][4]
3. (forestry) A defect of felled trunks left too long before sawing, which become stained by a fungus.^[3][11][15]
4. (figurative, sports) Exhaustion of an athlete or team.^[11]
5. (archaic) A burn, scald.^[3][11][12]

Word family

• precottura
• sovracottura

Related words

• cuocere
• cotto
• cotta
• cocitura
• Latin coctūra

Usage notes

Set phrases include portare a cottura (to cook until done), punto di cottura (the point at which food is properly cooked) and angolo cottura (a kitchenette).^[12][16][11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
5. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 421
6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1141
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana