gesso

Forms

gesso m (plural gessi)^[1] Old Italian forms include gesse (13th century), the northern Old Italian çesso and Old Italian zeso, and Sicilian gipsu.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gypsum,^[2][5][3][1] which Latin borrowed from Ancient Greek γύψος (gúpsos, “gypsum, chalk”).^[2][5][6][1] A Semitic origin has been proposed for the Greek word.^[2][7] The Latin derivative gypsō (“to plaster”), with its participle gypsātus, is the only one of the Italian derivatives with a Latin forerunner.^[2]

The same Latin word gave Old French gip, Occitan geis, Catalan guix, Spanish yeso and Portuguese gesso.^[5][8] The French gypse is a learned form.^[5][8] In Spain the word also came through Arabic, as Spanish algez.^[8][9] DEI derives Sicilian jìbbisu, also Calabrian, from the Arabic form of the word, itself from Latin.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Roman Miracole de Roma of the mid-13th century, where the word names the white material obtained by firing and grinding a kind of rock.^[4] DELI finds gesse for the powder in the 13th century, in Chiaro Davanzati.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Giovanni Villani, telling of a famine, writes that people ate polvere d'uno monte... come diciamo gesso (“powder from a mountain... such as we call gypsum”) instead of flour.^[2][10] The mineral sense is recorded before 1336, in Cenne de la Chitarra.^[2] In Old Italian gesso could already mean a tablet of gypsum to write on.^[4]

From the 16th century the word named a statue or relief made of plaster (Bernardo Tasso, before 1569); in 1688 the notes to the Malmantile say that painters call such figures simply gesso.^[2] The piece of chalk for writing is in Ariosto (1532), and before 1527 Machiavelli wrote that Charles VIII of France could take Italy col gesso, marking his troops' lodgings with chalk.^[2][11] Later senses are the plaster cast for a broken bone, the cube of chalk for a billiard cue and the tailor's chalk.^[3][7] Rimanere di gesso is to be dumbstruck.^[7][12]

English borrowed the word as gesso, plaster used as a ground for painting, in the 1590s.^[13][14]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – Gesso appears in the Roman Miracole de Roma.^[4]
• 13th century – Chiaro Davanzati uses gesse.^[2]
• Before 1336 – Cenne de la Chitarra uses gesso for the mineral.^[2]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani compares famine food to gesso.^[2]
• Before 1527 – Machiavelli writes of taking Italy col gesso.^[2]
• 1532 – Ariosto uses gesso for a piece of chalk to write with.^[2]
• Before 1569 – Bernardo Tasso uses gesso for a plaster statue.^[2]
• 1590s – English gesso is first recorded.^[13]
• 1869 – Tommaseo–Bellini records gessetto.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mineralogy) gypsum, the mineral hydrated calcium sulphate.^[3][15][7]
2. plaster: the powder from ground gypsum that hardens when mixed with water, used in building and for casts and stucco: una statuetta di gesso.^[3][15][12]
3. (art) A work made or cast in plaster: la sala dei gessi.^[3][16][12]
4. A stick of chalk for writing on a blackboard.^[15][16][12]
5. (billiards) A cube of chalk rubbed on the tip of the cue.^[3][7][12]
6. Tailor's chalk, used to mark cloth for cutting and sewing.^[3][17]
7. (medicine) A plaster cast: Dopo la caduta ha dovuto portare il gesso per sei settimane.^[3][15][16]
8. (as an invariable adjective) Of a white like plaster: bianco gesso.^[3][15][7]

Word family

• gessetto
• gessoso
• gessaia
• gessaio
• gessare
• gessato
• gessatura
• gessificare
• gessificazione
• ingessare
• ingessatura
• gessino

Related words

• Latin gypsum
• English gesso

Usage notes

Rimanere di gesso (“to be left like plaster”) means to be struck dumb with surprise;^[7][12][3] calma e gesso is a call to keep calm.^[7][12][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1794
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ 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 g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli