maso

Forms

maso m (plural masi)^[1]

Etymology

It is a northern and Ladin word, inherited from Medieval Latin mansum (“dwelling”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} This is the past participle of Latin maneō (“to remain, stay”), used as a noun.^[6][7][3] In Latin it already meant “dwelling”, and a Pompeian inscription writes it without ⟨n⟩.^[6] Zingarelli treats it as the dialect form of manso.^[8] The Latin verb goes back to a stative Proto-Indo-European *mn-eh₁- (“to remain”); Ancient Greek μένω (ménō, “to remain”) is a cognate.^[9]

The same word is Occitan mas and Catalan mas “farmhouse”, Old French mes, and Romanian mas “sheepfold”.^[7][10][11] The word passed to French mas in 1787.^[10] A derivative, Medieval Latin mansuarius, gave Piedmontese masuè (“sharecropper”).^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Carta fabrianese of 1186 which pledges nostri masi, qui teni Martinu de Moricu et Peti de Bonomo, “our holdings, which Martinu de Moricu and Peti de Bonomo hold”: a farmhouse with its land.^[6][11] Medieval Latin mansus is recorded at Parma in 885.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word lived on in the Alpine dialects of the Veneto, Trentino and the Ladin Dolomites.^[10][11] Sanudo tells of a patriarch who gave a man a maxo in fief on condition that he silence the frogs around the patriarch's house.^[11] In the Veneto it is a landed property with a farmhouse, and in Tyrol the maso chiuso is a family farm that cannot be divided among heirs.^[7] That term is recorded in 1931, for the closed farms of Trentino; it renders German Erbhof.^[6][2]

Timeline

• 885 – Medieval Latin mansus is recorded at Parma.^[6]
• 1038 – Medieval Latin masum is recorded at Teramo.^[10]
• 1186 – The Carta fabrianese has masi.^[6]
• 1287 – Maso is recorded at Trento.^[10]
• 1787 – French mas is recorded.^[10]
• 1931 – Maso chiuso is first recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional) In the eastern Alps, a family-run farm, with a farmhouse, land for raising livestock, and farm equipment.^[4][5][8][7]
2. (law) In maso chiuso: in South Tyrol and Tyrol, a farm that cannot be divided and passes whole to a single heir.^[5][8][2][4]

Related words

• manso
• magione
• rimanere
• Latin maneo
• French mas

Usage notes

Maso is also a short form of the name Tommaso.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
3. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2383
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET