Etymologically
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culo

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Pronunciation

Forms

culo m (plural culi, diminutive culétto or culìno, augmentative culóne, pejorative culàccio)[1] Old Italian texts also spell it Old Italian chulo, Old Italian chullo and Old Italian qulo, with a southern Old Italian culu and a shortened Old Italian cul.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cūlus (“backside, anus”), a word recorded in Latin from Catullus on.[3][4][5][6][1] It survives in every Romance language without exception, so the DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance noun for it.[6] The same word is French cul, Occitan cul, Catalan cul, Spanish culo, Sardinian culu, Friulian cul, Dalmatian col and Romanian cur.[4][7]

The Latin noun has close relatives only in Celtic: Old Irish cúl (“back”) and Welsh cil (“corner, angle”), from Proto-Celtic *kūlos.[4][8][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kūlo- (“back”) and Proto-Indo-European *kuH-lo- (“backside, rear”).[8] The older explanation from a root meaning “to cover, hide”, which Nocentini still favours (the parts to be hidden, as perhaps also in Latin cunnus), rests on a root that the LIV has given up; de Vaan suggests instead a link with Latin cutis (“skin”) and a root meaning “to cleave”.[4][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma (1252–1258), and its first sense is the anus.[2] DELI dates the sense “backside, bottom” to Rustico Filippi, who died before 1300.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for the hind part of animals and, figuratively, for the end of an oblong object.[2] Dante's devil who “avea del cul fatto trombetta” (had made a trumpet of his arse) is in the Inferno.[9] The sense “bottom of a vessel or object” is recorded before 1571 in Benvenuto Cellini, and Tommaseo lists it for pans, cauldrons, candles, eggs, flasks and glasses.[3][9] A 15th-century traveller, Quirino (1431), called the North Cape Culo mundi, and in Rome in culibus mundi still means “in the back of beyond”.[10]

Derivatives name things at the back or the bottom: culatta, the breech of a gun (before 1537, Biringuccio), and also a cut of beef in the northern dialects, culaccio, the Tuscan word for that cut (before 1565, Varchi), and culatello, a cured ham from the Parma area (1908).[3][4] Rinculare “to recoil” (14th century) follows French reculer.[4]

In the 20th century the word took two vulgar senses: sheer luck, as in che culo! and avere culo, and, as an insult, a male homosexual.[11][5] Many vulgar idioms are built on it, such as prendere per il culo “to make fun of”, farsi il culo “to work very hard”, essere culo e camicia “to be inseparable” and in culo alla balena, a jocular wish of good luck.[12][13][14]

Timeline

  • 1252–1258 – The Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma have the first record.[2]
  • Before 1300 – Rustico Filippi uses culo for the backside.[3]
  • 14th century – Rinculare “to recoil” is formed after French reculer.[4]
  • 1431 – Quirino calls the North Cape Culo mundi.[10]
  • Before 1537 – Culatta “breech of a gun” appears in Biringuccio.[3]
  • Before 1571 – Benvenuto Cellini uses culo for the bottom of an object.[3]
  • 1908 – Culatello is recorded in Panzini's dictionary.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (vulgar) The buttocks, bottom, arse: Sono scivolato sul ghiaccio e ho preso una botta al culo.[5][15][12][1]
  2. (vulgar) The anus.[5][12][13]
  3. (figurative) The bottom or base of a container or object: Sul culo della bottiglia c'era ancora un dito di vino.[5][16][13]
  4. (figurative, vulgar) Outrageous luck: Ha vinto al primo tentativo: che culo![5][13][11]
  5. (vulgar, derogatory) A male homosexual.[5][1][11]

Word family

  • culaccio
  • culata
  • culatello
  • culatta
  • culbianco
  • culattone
  • inculare
  • inculata
  • rinculare
  • rinculo
  • sculacciare
  • sculacciata
  • sculaccione
  • sculettare

Usage notes

The word is vulgar in every sense.[5][12] Its diminutives are culetto and culino, the augmentative culone and the pejorative culaccio.[1][12] In several dialects culo dell'ago is the eye of a needle, as French has cul d'une aiguille.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 e f g h 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 d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ a b c 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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 1, 1854
  10. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 356
  11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. Supplemento 2009
  12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  16. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  17. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1188