creta

Forms

creta f (plural crete)^[1] Old Italian forms include crea, creda and crita.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crēta (“chalk; fine clay”).^[3][4][5][1]

The same word is French craie, Occitan greda, Catalan greda, Spanish greda and Portuguese greda, and Lombard grea in the dialect of Bergamo.^[4][6]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[3][7][8] An old explanation takes it as short for terra crēta “sifted earth”, with the past participle of cernō (“to sift”).^[4][9][8] De Vaan finds this possible in form but weak in meaning, since clay is not sifted earth, and prefers Pedersen's link with the Celtic words for mud and clay, Old Irish cré, Welsh pridd and Breton pri: Latin may have borrowed the word from Celtic, or both may have taken it from an unknown third language.^[10][1] Prati and Wiktionary also mention “Cretan earth”, from the island of Crete.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma of 1252–1258, and its first sense is a workable clayey earth used for pottery, terracotta and sculpture.^[2] DELI's first record is about 1340, in the Italian translation of Palladius: Spaventasi della creta, cioè argilla (the lupin “is afraid of creta, that is, clay”).^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian creta was clay for making pottery, also in the phrase terra creta, and was used for cleaning and polishing metals.^[2] In religious writing it was already the matter from which God made man, the source of the literary mortal creta for the human body.^[2][12][13]

The geological sense, a soft white limestone of microscopic marine fossils, is a modern one: GDLI explains it as a wrong translation of French craie.^[7][3] Parini used creta for an object made of clay (1759), and his spregiate crete are chamber pots.^[3][14] Le Crete are the clay hills between Siena and the Val di Chiana.^[12][14] In cooking, pollo alla creta is chicken baked in a clay casing.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1252–1258 – The Storie de Troia e de Roma have the first record.^[2]
• About 1340 – The Italian Palladius uses creta and cretoso.^[3]
• 1750 – Antonio Cocchi uses cretaceo.^[3]
• 1759 – Parini uses creta for an object made of clay.^[3]
• 1873 – Stoppani uses cretaceo for the last period of the Mesozoic.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. clay that is easily moulded and is used for pottery and terracotta: un busto modellato nella creta.^[5][17][14]
2. (geology) A soft, white, floury limestone; chalk.^[5][3][13]
3. An object made of clay: le crete etrusche del museo.^[5][17][12]
4. (figurative, literary) The human body as mortal matter: la mortal creta.^[15][12][13]
5. (cooking) alla creta, baked inside a clay casing: pollo alla creta.^[15][12][16]

Word family

• cretone
• cretaccia

Related words

• cretaceo
• cretoso
• argilla
• Latin crēta
• French craie
• Spanish greda

Usage notes

The stressed vowel is pronounced closed or open: /ˈkre.ta/ or /ˈkrɛ.ta/.^[1][17] Colosso dai piedi di creta is a giant with feet of clay.^[14] A Genoese creta “credit” of 1311 is a different word, shortened from credito.^[2] The island of Crete is Creta, with a capital.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 e f g h i j 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse