dozzina

Forms

dozzina f (plural dozzine)^[1] Old Italian forms include dozina, dozena and doçina.^[2] Northern Italian has dozzena.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French douzaine, recorded at the end of the 12th century, from douze (“twelve”).^[5][6][7][3] The French numeral continues Latin duodecim (“twelve”), which is formed from duo (“two”) and decem (“ten”).^[8][1][9] Meyer-Lübke likewise derives the Italian word from French, which also gave the English word dozen, while Spanish has docena.^[10][6]

Wiktionary instead takes it, as likely, from Old Occitan dotzena, from dotze.^[1] Prati notes that the French or Occitan numeral also gave the old numerals Old Italian doze and dozi.^[11] The loan displaced the native dodicina, formed on dodici.^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, as dozina, is in a Sienese letter of 1260, in a reckoning of goods sold at so much a dozen.^[5][2][12] The form dozzina appears in a Florentine text of 1291.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word was used above all for goods sold or priced twelve at a time, such as eggs, lemons and buttons; in 1797 D'Alberti notes that in Tuscany eggs and bread were counted instead in a serqua.^[12][5] Because goods sold by the dozen were usually cheap, di dozzina came to mean “ordinary, of little worth”, which gave dozzinale (1387).^[5][13]

The sense “board and lodging in a private house for a set price”, as in stare a dozzina, is recorded before 1405 in Filippo Villani.^[5] Its origin is debated: Tommaseo suggested that a dozen guests made the arrangement pay, and Lurati that dozzina first meant a payment, like decima.^[5][6] Roulette uses dozzina for each of the bets on 1–12, 13–24 and 25–36.^[3][4] Turkish düzine was borrowed from Italian.^[1]

Timeline

• 1260 – a Sienese letter has dozina.^[5][2]
• 1291 – the form dozzina is recorded in a Florentine text.^[5]
• 1387 – dozzinale is recorded in the Datini archive.^[5]
• Before 1405 – Filippo Villani uses dozzina for board and lodging.^[5]
• 1640 – Oudin records dozzenante for a boarder.^[5]
• 1797 – D'Alberti explains di dozzina by the low value of goods sold by the dozen.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dozen, a set of twelve things of the same kind: una dozzina di matite.^[7][14][3]
2. About twelve, a dozen or so (a dozzine, in great numbers, and di dozzina, of little worth): Saremo stati una dozzina a cena.^[7][14][15]
3. (dated) Board and lodging with a private family for an agreed price, and the price itself: stare a dozzina.^[7][14][3]
4. (roulette) Each of the three bets on the numbers 1–12, 13–24 and 25–36.^[3][4]

Word family

• dozzinale
• dozzinante

Related words

• dodici
• dodicina
• serqua
• French douzaine
• English dozen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 391
12. ^ 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. 4, 993
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana