desco

Forms

desco m (plural deschi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian desc, descho, disco and discu.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin discus (“quoit; plate”), from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “discus, round plate”).^[3][4][5][1] The learned disco is a doublet of the same Latin word.^[3][1]

In Late Latin the word came to mean a round dish and then the table one ate from;^[6][3][4] Migliorini saw in the spread of the word for the family table a sign that it was usually round.^[6][3][4] The same word is Old French dois, French dais “canopy”, Old Occitan desc and Friulian desc.^[6][4][7] Borrowed into Germanic in Roman times, it gave German Tisch (“table”) and English dish, and it also reached Welsh dysg.^[4][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Ritmo laurenziano of the late 12th century, in a gap of the text that is filled with confidence, with the sense “table for eating”.^[3] The TLIO's first text is the Frotula of the Cremonese poet Patecchio, of the first half of the 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian desco was any table: the dining table, the writing table of notaries and other officials, the counter on which goods were laid out, and a table for playing dice.^[2] Boccaccio finds a woman and her husband a desco che desinavano “at table, dining”.^[8][9] It also named a butcher's block, the bench of a magistrate, and in 13th-century Modena a charitable confraternity.^[6] The diminutive deschetto, a small table and especially a cobbler's bench, is recorded in 1296.^[3] The desco da parto was a painted wooden tray on which food was brought to women after childbirth in 15th-century Tuscany.^[10][11]

Tommaseo noted that the word was still alive in Tuscany, with proverbs such as Gran traditore è il desco (the table loosens tongues).^[9] Today it is literary, used chiefly of the family table and in stare a desco “to sit at table”.^[5][12][13]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Ritmo laurenziano has desco “table”.^[3]
• 1296 – Deschetto is recorded.^[3]
• 1349–1353 – Boccaccio uses desco in the Decameron.^[8]
• 15th century – The painted desco da parto is in use in Tuscany.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A table, especially one laid for a meal;^[5][11][13] stare a desco, to sit at table.^[5][11][13]
2. (archaic) A shop counter, especially a butcher's.^[5][11][10]
3. (archaic) The bench or office of a public official.^[5][10]
4. A workbench.^[13]
5. (archaic) A stool.^[13][14]
6. (archaic) A disc, a plate.^[11][13][10]
7. (art history) desco da parto: a painted wooden tray used in 15th-century Tuscany to bring food to a woman after childbirth.^[11][10]

Word family

• deschetto
• descheria

Related words

• disco
• Latin discus
• German Tisch
• English dish

Usage notes

Desco molle was a quick snack eaten without laying the tablecloth.^[10][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1259
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli