dosso

Forms

dosso m (plural dossi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dossum (“back”), the popular form of dorsum (“back”) with the cluster ⟨rs⟩ assimilated to ⟨ss⟩.^[2][3][4][1] DELI and GRADIT give the form as unrecorded, but it occurs in Varro and Velius Longus.^[5][6] Devoto saw in it a crossing of the classical word with os (“bone”).^[7] The same form is French dos, Occitan dos, Catalan dos and Romanian dos.^[3][8] The learned dorso is a doublet.^[1]

De Vaan, following the Romans' own etymology, takes the classical word from a compound of dē- (“away from”) and versus (“turned”), meaning “turned away”, the same as the adverb deorsum (“downwards”): the back is what is turned away from the viewer.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record, for “back”, is in Florentine texts of 1277–1296;^[2][3] Nocentini dates the word to the early 13th century.^[2][3] Bono Giamboni (before 1292) lists the bent back, il dosso chinato, among the ills of old age.^[9]

Semantic evolution

By the late 13th century the word also meant a rise, a top or summit (Bono Giamboni), and Dante has montare al dosso de l'arco, climbing to the top of a bridge's arch.^[2][4] In the plural, from the 14th to the 18th century, dossi were back skins used to line fur coats.^[10][8]

As a word for the back it is now literary and lives mainly in phrases such as levarsi di dosso “to take off” and scrollarsi di dosso “to shake off”, and in the adverbs addosso and indosso.^[11][12][13] In geography it names a low rise, and regionally the sandy hills of the Novara and Verona areas and the strips of land in the Po delta.^[4][11] The road sense, a hump that blocks the view, is recorded from 1970.^[2] A proverb warns that la lingua non ha osso ma fa rompere il dosso, “the tongue has no bone but can get your back broken”.^[14]

Timeline

• 1277–1296 – Florentine texts use dosso for “back”.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for a summit.^[2]
• 14th century – Dossi is recorded for back skins used in furs.^[10]
• Before 1497 – Dossale “altar back” is recorded.^[2]
• 1875 – Estradosso “extrados” is recorded.^[3]
• 1970 – Zingarelli records the sense “road hump”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) The back: levarsi di dosso il cappotto.^{[4][13][12][15][1]}
2. A rise, top or summit.^[4][12][15]
3. (geography) A low rise standing out from a surface of a different kind: dosso glaciale.^[4][13][12]
4. A hump in a road that hides the road ahead: Non sorpassare in prossimità del dosso.^{[4][13][12][15][1]}
5. (regional, geography) A small sandy hill on river terraces (Novara, Verona); a strip of land rising from a lagoon in the Po delta.^[4]

Word family

• addosso
• indosso
• ridosso
• addossare
• indossare
• dossale
• estradosso
• intradosso

Related words

• dorso
• Latin dorsum
• French dos

Usage notes

The figurative phrases togliersi un peso di dosso (“to get a weight off one's mind”) and scrollarsi di dosso (“to shake off”) are the commonest uses of the word for the back.^[15][13][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 153
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1386
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli