crepatura

Forms

crepatura f (plural crepature)^[1] An old form is Old Italian cripatura.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin crepātūra (“crack, fissure”), from Latin crepō (“to crack, creak”) with the suffix -tūra.^[3][4][5][1] GRADIT instead treats it as formed from Italian crepare + -tura.^[6]

The Late Latin word lives on across the Romance languages: Romanian crăpătură, Sardinian krebadura, Old French creveure, Occitan crebadura, Catalan crebadura, Spanish quebradura and Portuguese quebradura.^[7][8][9] The Latin verb first meant “to make a sharp, loud noise”.^[10] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep- (“to rattle, crackle”), while the Oxford Latin Dictionary calls it imitative.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Sienese Fatti di Cesare of the late 13th century, in the sense “crack, fissure”, said of ground, rock or a surface.^[2] DELI's first example, in a 14th-century translation of Pietro Ispano, has the sense “result of cracking”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word also meant chapped skin, and in veterinary use the cracks in a horse's heel, the same as crepaccia.^[2] The old sense “hernia” has gone out of use.^[5][13][9] Later writers used it for cracks in walls, in molten metal and in the rocks of mountains, from Leonardo and Cellini to Magalotti.^[14] Cheesemakers use it for an abnormal splitting of cooked-curd cheeses.^[6][5]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Sienese Fatti di Cesare has the word, the first record.^[2]
• 14th century – A translation of Pietro Ispano uses it.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crack, fissure, a long thin split in a surface: una crepatura nel muro.^{[6][4][15][5][16]}
2. Chapping of the skin.^[6][16]
3. An abnormal split in cheeses with cooked curd.^[6][5][13]
4. (obsolete) A hernia.^[5][13]

Related words

• crepare
• crepa
• crepaccio
• Latin crepō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1152
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 954
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)