intonacare

Forms

intonacare (first-person singular present intònaco, first-person singular past historic intonacài, past participle intonacàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *intunicāre (“to cover (as) with a tunic”), formed from in- and a verb made from Latin tunica (“tunic; covering”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Classical Latin had tunicō (“to clothe”), used by Varro.^[6][7] Treccani sees in tonaca the figurative sense “surface”.^[8] The noun intonaco (old intonico) is a back-formation from the verb.^[2]

The same Vulgar Latin verb gave Spanish entunicar (“to give a wall a double coat of plaster”).^[5][3] Basque entokatu is a loan from it, and German tünchen (“to whitewash”), from Old High German tunihhōn, comes from the same base.^[5][6] Nocentini also counts Romanian întuneca (“to darken”) here, while Meyer-Lübke files it under another etymon.^[3][5] For the shift from clothing to plaster DEI compares the English word coat, both a garment and a layer.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is intonicare in a Prato document of 1296–1305, meaning “to cover a surface with a coat of plaster or another mix”.^[9][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The old form was intonicare, with Old Italian variants such as entonechare and ’ntonichare.^[9] The Tuscan translations of Palladius and of Pietro de' Crescenzi use it for plastering walls and towers.^[10][7] The TLIO also records a figurative sense, “to hide the true nature of something from someone”.^[9] The form intonacare appears in an artist's letter of 1563.^[2]

The noun followed the same path, from intonico (before 1405, Frescobaldi) to intonaco (before 1498, Landino).^[2] Intonicatura is recorded in Medieval Latin at Orvieto in 1492 and in Palladio in 1570, and intonacatura in Algarotti before 1764.^[2] Writers also used the verb jokingly: Leopardi wrote that the sun had not intonacato il viso di ruggine (“plastered its face with rust”) for Caesar's death.^[8] Today, of a face, it means heavy make-up.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1296–1305 – A Prato document has intonicare.^[9][2]
• Before 1405 – Frescobaldi uses the noun intonico.^[2]
• 1492 – Medieval Latin intonicatura is recorded at Orvieto.^[2]
• Before 1498 – Landino uses intonaco.^[2]
• 1563 – Intonacare appears in an artist's letter.^[2]
• 1570 – Palladio uses intonicatura.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To plaster: to cover a wall or ceiling with a coat of intonaco.^{[4][11][12][1]}
2. To coat a surface with another substance to protect or decorate it, such as pitch or wax.^[4][11][13]
3. (jocular, derogatory) To make up heavily: Si era intonacata le guance di fard.^[4][11][14]

Word family

• intonaco
• intonacatura
• intonacamento
• intonacato
• intonacatore
• intonacatrice
• intonachista
• rintonacare

Related words

• tonaca
• tunica

Usage notes

The old form intonicare is archaic.^[11][12][15] The stress falls on the third syllable from the end in the present: intònaco, intònachi.^[11][13]

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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2070
7. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8, 308
11. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana