crostolo

Forms

crostolo m (plural crostoli)^[1] Old Italian forms are crostolo, the plural crostoli, and crostola.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crustulum (“small cake, pastry”).^{[3][4][5][1][2]} The Latin word is a diminutive, of crusta (“crust”) according to Nocentini and Zingarelli, of crustum (“cake”) according to GRADIT, Wiktionary and the OLD.^{[3][6][4][1][7]} The GDLI derives the Italian word from Venetian crostolo, and Gabrielli takes it as a derivative of crosta.^[8][9]

Meyer-Lübke lists the Venetian form among the outcomes of the Latin word, beside Friulian krostul (“crust of bread or baked food”) and Sicilian and Calabrian krustulu.^[10] Wiktionary gives the Venetan form Venetian gróstoło.^[1] De Vaan traces the Latin word for “crust” to Proto-Indo-European *krus-to- (“crushed, pounded”), a crust being the hardened part.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's only Old Italian record is a Tuscan Bible translation of the 14th or 15th century, where crostolo renders Latin laganum, a thin bread or pastry.^[2] The modern sense, the fried carnival pastry of the Veneto, is dated 1905.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The modern word comes from the dialects of the Veneto, where crostoli are strips of sweet dough fried and eaten at Carnival.^[8][12] Panzini noted that in part of the Veneto they are what elsewhere are called cenci or galani.^[8] The dictionaries mark it as regional, the north-eastern name for the pastry called cenci, frappe or chiacchiere in other parts of Italy.^[5][6][12] Zingarelli dates it to 1931.^[6]

Timeline

• 14th–15th century – A Tuscan Bible translation uses crostolo for a thin bread or pastry.^[2]
• 1905 – Crostolo is recorded as the Venetian carnival pastry.^[3][4][5]
• 1931 – Zingarelli's date for the word.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, Veneto, usually in the plural) A Carnival sweet made of strips of dough fried and dusted with sugar, called elsewhere chiacchiere, cenci or frappe.^{[4][5][6][12][1]}

Related words

• crosta
• crostoso
• Latin crustulum

Usage notes

Crostolo is also the name of a river in the province of Reggio Emilia.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)