grascia

Forms

grascia f (plural grasce)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *crassia (“fat, lard”), from crassus (“fat, thick”).^[2][3][1] DELI explains the Vulgar Latin form as a collective neuter plural of *crassium, used for the classical adjective.^[4][5] The initial /g/ is the one of grasso.^[6][7] The same word is French graisse, Occitan graisa, Catalan greix and Portuguese graixa.^[2][8]

The sense “provisions” led Diez to look for another source, a Greek word for buying at market, and Caix proposed another etymon.^[9] Körting reports both views but keeps the Latin source.^[9] Tommaseo too rejects a derivation from Ancient Greek ἀγοραστικός (agorastikós) and links the sense to the plenty of food, as in pasciona.^[10]

The origin of the Latin adjective is unknown.^[11][1] De Vaan rejects a root meaning “to wind” and a link with crātis (“wickerwork”).^[11] He notes that it belongs with other adjectives for body shapes that have a double consonant, such as grossus.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the word to the 14th century, as grassa in the vernacular Bible and as grascia in Zucchero Bencivenni, meaning fat, especially of pigs or oxen.^[4] An old recipe for an ointment calls for one pound of ship's pitch and one pound of old grascia di porco, pork fat.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From fat the word moved to plenty: in medieval Italian, mostly in the plural, grasce were all the things needed for food, especially grain.^[4][3] Giovanni Villani tells how Genoese galleys guarded the mouth of the Tiber so that grascia e vittuaglia could not reach Rome by sea.^[12] From the provisions the name passed to the tax on bringing food into a town and to the city magistracy in charge of supplies, recorded before 1370 in Donato Velluti.^[4][3][5] Its officer was the grasciere in Naples (1585) and the grascino in Tuscany (1618).^[4]

The figurative sense “gain, wealth” is old: Prati cites it from Villani.^[13] Boccaccio's grascia di san Giovanni Boccadoro, used to grease someone's hands, is money.^[10] In the Alpine, Venetian and Friulian dialects grassa came to mean manure.^[6] Today the word is historical or regional.^[3][14]

Timeline

• 14th century – Grassa and grascia are recorded for fat.^[4]
• 14th century – Grassa means provisions in the Quaedam Profetia.^[4]
• Before 1348 – Zingarelli's first date for the word.^[5]
• Before 1370 – Donato Velluti uses the word for the magistracy of supplies.^[4]
• 1585 – Grasciere is recorded in Naples.^[4]
• 1618 – Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger uses grascino.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) In the Middle Ages, food supplies and provisions of every kind, especially cereals.^{[3][15][14][1]}
2. (historical) A duty paid on food brought into a town.^[3][14][1]
3. (historical) The town magistracy that oversaw food supplies, prices, weights and measures.^[5][16][17]
4. (figurative, archaic or regional) Wealth, abundance, profit.^[3][15][17]
5. (archaic or regional) Fat, especially pork fat, lard, and by extension greasiness of the skin.^{[3][15][14][17]}

Word family

• grasciere
• grascino
• grasceta

Related words

• grasso
• crasso
• ingrassare
• Latin crassus
• French graisse

Usage notes

Prefetto della grascia was the title of the officer over provisions.^[3] Zingarelli records the old phrase andare alla grascia, “to go to waste”, of a deal that comes to nothing.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1862
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 525
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)