lesso

Forms

lesso (feminine lessa, masculine plural lessi, feminine plural lesse)^[1] An Old Italian Neapolitan text has lisso.^[2][3] In the dialects the word is Venetian lesso in Venice, lès at Feltre and Tirano and líssə at Ascoli.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ēlixus (“boiled in water”).^[4][5][6][1] DELI also names the Latin verb elixāre (“to cook in water”), the source of lessare.^[4][5] The LEI notes that the Latin adjective survives only in Italo-Romance, where it is also Friulian lès.^[3] It files apart the rare forms that keep the Latin /ks/, and judges them semi-learned because they drop the initial ⟨e-⟩ as well.^[3]

The Latin adjective is formed with the prefix ex- on an adjective *lixus (“strained, liquefied”), which is also in prōlixus.^[5][1] That adjective is attested only through the noun lixa, short for a phrase with aqua (“water”), first the water for making lye and then hot water for washing.^[4][5] It belongs with liquō (“to strain, liquefy”) and liqueō (“to be liquid”).^[4][5][7] Wiktionary traces this adjective to Proto-Italic *liksos and Proto-Indo-European *wleykʷ- (“moist, to wet”), with a first sense “fluid, flowing”.^[1] Devoto saw in it a desiderative formation in ⟨-s⟩ from the root of that verb, so that the word described something “dissolved”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the 13th-century Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis, which has the form lisso (the LEI dates the text to the 14th century).^[2][3] DELI's first record is in Folgore da San Gimignano, in the sense “boiled in water until cooked”.^[4] Folgore lists among the dishes of a feast lessi capponi, “boiled capons”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The noun, “boiled meat, especially beef”, is recorded in the 14th century in the Tavola Ritonda.^[4] In Mangiato ch'ebbono il lesso, venne davanti lo arrosto (“when they had eaten the boiled meat, the roast came”) the two courses already stand side by side.^[9] Old Italian also had the phrases a lesso “boiled” and fare lesso “to cook slowly in boiling water”.^[2] According to the LEI, alesso (now allesso) grew out of the phrase a lesso, and the verb alessare was made from it, not from the Latin verb.^[3]

Pagine lesse were “dull, insipid pages” for Giusti in 1846, and since 1996 the adjective has also meant “dazed, stunned”.^[3] In Tommaseo's time minestra e lesso stood for a plain, frugal diet.^[10] Carducci used il lesso for the daily keep of a household.^[6][11] The look of a boiled fish gave occhio da pesce lesso, a dull, vacant stare.^[6][12]

Timeline

• 13th century – The Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis has lisso.^[2]
• Before 1309 – Folgore da San Gimignano writes lessi capponi.^[4][3]
• 1300–1313 – Dante writes of “boiled” men.^[4]
• 1302–1305 – Giordano da Pisa uses the verb lessare.^[4][5]
• 14th century – The noun lesso “boiled meat” appears in the Tavola Ritonda.^[4]
• c. 1370 – Boccaccio's Decameron has i due capponi lessi.^[3][9]
• 1424 – Venetian charne lessa “boiled meat” is recorded.^[3]
• 1846 – Giusti calls pages lesse, “insipid”.^[3]
• 1996 – Ammaniti uses lesso for “dazed”.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. boiled, cooked in boiling water: Stasera mangiamo zucchine lesse.^[6][11][1]
2. (figurative) insipid, dull.^[13][3]

Noun

1. boiled meat, a dish of meat (most often beef) cooked in water seasoned with herbs: Il lesso era servito con la salsa verde.^[6][11][14]
2. A cut of meat for boiling.^[6][11][14]
3. (figurative, literary) One's daily sustenance, the household's food.^[6][11]

Word family

• lessare
• lessatura
• allesso

Related words

• prolisso
• liquido
• lisciva
• Latin ēlixus

Usage notes

Lesso is also the first person singular present of lessare.^[15] Tommaseo described the adjective as a shortened past participle of lessare, beside the regular lessato.^[10][1] Common phrases are a lesso (also allesso) “boiled”, pesce lesso and occhio da pesce lesso.^[6][12][11] The saying chi la vuol lessa, chi la vuole arrosto is said of people who can never agree.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 364
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 f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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. 8, 969
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org