giudecca

Forms

giudecca f (plural giudecche)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin iudeca, from Latin Iūdaica, the feminine of the adjective meaning “Jewish”.^[1][2][3][4] GRADIT dates the Medieval Latin form from 1090.^[2] Zingarelli sees the suffix -ecca laid over the Latin form.^[5] The Latin adjective goes back through the name of the Jews to Biblical Hebrew יְהוּדָה (y'hudá, “Judah”).^[1]

The learned form giudaica is its doublet, and Sicilian judeca is the Sicilian word.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI cites la Iudeca de Lentini, “the Jewish quarter of Lentini”, from 1393.^[6] The DEI dates the word from the 14th century and records it in Sicily in 1499 for the Jewish community itself.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word named the quarter of a town where the Jews lived, and by extension the Jewish community.^[6][8] In a supplication of the town of Castronuovo the Iudeca et Iudei are to be kept out of a local official's jurisdiction.^[8] Before 1750 Ludovico Antonio Muratori explained ghetto as Vicus Hebraeorum and noted that Giudecca had been the name for the place where Jews lived in cities.^[6] Other forms were giudaica and judaica.^[6] Padula described the giudecche as dark and muddy mazes at the lowest end of the towns.^[8]

The DEI ties the word's literary fortune to Dante's Giudecca, the deepest zone of Hell, where traitors to their benefactors are punished.^[7] Dante named it after Judas Iscariot, punished there with Lucifer, Brutus and Cassius, but built the name on the Medieval Latin form.^[4][8] As a proper name Giudecca remains the name of an island of the Venetian lagoon.^[4][1][9]

Timeline

• 1090 – Medieval Latin Iudeca is recorded.^[2]
• 1393 – la Iudeca de Lentini is mentioned.^[6]
• 1499 – the word names the Jewish community in Sicily.^[7]
• 1527 – Zingarelli's date for the Italian word.^[5]
• Before 1750 – Muratori explains ghetto through giudecca.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) The quarter of some Italian towns where the Jews lived, a ghetto: La giudecca della città era vicina al porto.^{[2][10][3][5]}
2. (historical, by extension) The Jewish community of such a town.^[8][7]

Related words

• giudeo
• giudaico
• giudaica
• ghetto

Usage notes

Giudecca with a capital is the island of Venice and, in Dante, the last zone of Cocytus in the ninth circle of Hell.^[4][1] The common noun is obsolete or historical.^[2][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1818
8. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 862
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier