macello

Forms

macello m (plural macelli)^[1] Old Italian forms include maciello, mascello and the northern maxello and maxelo.^[2] The old plural could be the feminine le macella.^[3]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin macellum (“meat market, provision market”).^[4][5][6] Meyer-Lübke counted it among the inherited outcomes of the Latin noun and of a spoken Latin verb *macellāre (“to slaughter”), which gave macellare.^[7][8] The Latin word was an old loan from Ancient Greek μάκελλον (mákellon, “enclosure; market”).^[4][9][1] The sense “slaughterhouse” seems to come from a new use of the word in Latin, where it had meant a market for meat and vegetables.^[4] The OLD notes a masculine form macellus.^[10]

The Greek word itself is usually traced to a Semitic source.^[4][9][11] Nocentini compares a Hebrew word for “enclosure”, and reports Gendre's view that the source was rather Phoenician or Punic, a word for a wooden fence, which reached the Greek of Sicily.^[9] DEI also compares the name of the town of Makella.^[12] The Latin word is not, as some have suggested, a diminutive of macula (“spot”).^[1]

The same Latin word gave Old Occitan mazel “slaughterhouse” and Old French maisel; the verb gave Spanish mancillar and Portuguese mazelar with the sense “to wound, harm”.^[7] Romanian măcel means “slaughter”.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Roman Miracole de Roma of the mid-13th century, and its first sense is the place where cattle are killed, skinned and cut up for sale.^[2] DELI's first dated use, with the same sense, is in Domenico Cavalca, before 1342, who compares a dog used to the slaughterhouse.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word stood for the work of slaughtering itself, and the phrase andare al macello meant going to one's death.^[2] The figurative sense of a massacre of people is recorded before 1370 in Donato Velluti.^[4][8] Tommaseo records the Tuscan proverb al macello va più capretti giovani che vecchi, meaning that more people die young.^[14]

In the 16th century the word also named the butcher's shop: maccello in 1528, macello in Bandello in 1554.^[4] In 1803 D'Alberti noted that in Tuscany macello was more usual than beccheria for the place where meat is sold, while in Venice Boerio distinguished the slaughterhouse (macello) from the butcher's shop (beccheria), and in Milan educated speakers preferred macèll to beccarìa.^[4]

The joking sense “disaster”, as of an exam that went badly, dates from 1942.^[4][15] The colloquial senses “a great mess” and “a huge crowd” followed.^[5][16]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – The Miracole de Roma give the first record.^[2]
• 1288 – The verb macellare appears in the statute of the Sienese butchers' guild.^[4]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses macello for the slaughterhouse.^[4]
• Before 1370 – Donato Velluti uses it for a slaughter of people.^[4]
• 1528 – Maccello is used for the butcher's shop.^[4]
• 1768 – Macelleria is first recorded, in Targioni Tozzetti.^[4]
• 1942 – The jocular sense “disaster” is recorded.^[4]
• 1957 – Macello is recorded as the name of a crushing drum.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A slaughterhouse, abattoir: the place where animals are killed and their meat prepared; in the plural also the buildings of such a place: hanno chiuso i vecchi macelli.^{[5][16][17][1]}
2. (uncommon, regional) A butcher's shop; macelleria.^[5][16][18]
3. The slaughter of animals for meat: bestie da macello.^[5][16][6]
4. (figurative) A massacre, the bloody killing of many people.^[5][15][1]
5. (figurative, jocular) A disaster, a total failure.^[5][16][6]
6. (figurative, colloquial) A great mess; a huge crowd or quantity: un macello di macchine.^[5][16][1]

Word family

• macellare
• macelleria
• macellabile
• macellaio
• macellatore
• macellazione
• macellesco

Related words

• mattatoio
• beccheria
• Latin macellum

Usage notes

Carne da macello “meat for the slaughterhouse” is said of soldiers sent to certain death, and mandare al macello is to send someone to ruin or death.^[6][17][5] A technical homograph, recorded from 1957, names a large rotating drum, usually of granite, for crushing materials (frantoio a macelli); it is formed from macellare, with its sense taken from macina or macinare.^[5][17][19] DEI also records a Tuscan macello for the millstone of an olive press, from Pisa and Volterra.^[12]

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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 368
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 612
9. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2299
13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ 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
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)
18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
19. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 369