mazza

Forms

mazza f (plural mazze)^[1] Forms in the earliest texts include Old Italian maça, maza, macza and massa.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *mattea (“club”), a Vulgar Latin noun that is not recorded.^[4][5][6][1] DELI and GRADIT call its origin uncertain.^[4][6] Nocentini, DEI and Wiktionary infer it from the classical diminutive Latin mateola, a farming word in Cato that probably named the handle of a hoe or a wooden mallet;^[5][7][1][8] Nocentini suggests that mazzuola may continue that diminutive directly.^[5][7][1][8] The same word is French masse, Occitan masa, Catalan maça, Spanish maza and Portuguese maça, and Romansh mazza in the Engadine.^[5][9]

De Vaan derives the diminutive from a noun *matea and compares Sanskrit मत्य (matyà, “club, harrow”), Proto-Slavic *motyka (“hoe”) and Old High German medela (“plough”), which point to Proto-Indo-European *mot- (“club, hoe”), perhaps from the root of metō (“to reap”).^[10][1] Devoto found no clear Indo-European match.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Cremonese poet Uguccione da Lodi, early in the 13th century, as maza, a stout stick also used as a weapon.^[2][4][3] The form mazza is first found in Cavalca, before 1342.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named any heavy stick or club, Hercules' club, a staff to lean on, a pestle, and the metal-headed war mace (mazza ferrata, mazza di ferro); menare la mazza was to strike with it.^[2] The iron hammer for the anvil and for breaking stones is recorded as maza in the 13th century and in a 15th-century statute of the smiths' guild.^[4] A staff of command appears in Machiavelli in 1504, the long staff of doormen in Anton Francesco Doni, and the bass-drum stick in 1699.^[4]

The baseball bat and the golf club were added in 1953.^[4] The derivative ammazzare, first “to strike with a club”, narrowed to “to kill” in the 13th century.^[5] The vulgar sense “penis”, and una mazza for “nothing at all” in negative sentences, belong to colloquial speech.^[6][12]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses maza.^[2][4]
• Before 1342 – The form mazza appears in Cavalca.^[4]
• 1504 – Machiavelli uses it for a staff of command.^[4]
• Before 1574 – Anton Francesco Doni uses it for a doorman's staff.^[4]
• 1699 – The stick for the bass drum is recorded.^[4]
• 1953 – The baseball bat and the golf club are recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A club or cudgel: a short, thick stick for striking, formerly a weapon.^[6][13][14]
2. A mace or staff of precious material carried as the sign of an office or rank.^[6][14]
3. A long decorated staff carried by doormen and servants on formal occasions.^[6][14]
4. (Tuscany) A walking stick.^[6][12][14]
5. (music) A stick with a felt head for large percussion instruments such as the bass drum.^[6][14]
6. (sports) A baseball bat, a golf club, a cricket bat.^[6][12][14]
7. A sledgehammer: a heavy hammer held in both hands for driving stakes and breaking stones.^[6][13][14]
8. (vulgar) Penis; in negative sentences, nothing at all: non capire una mazza.^[6][12][14]
9. (botany) In names of plants and fungi shaped like a club: mazza di tamburo, the parasol mushroom.^[14][15]

Word family

• mazzafrusto
• mazzapicchio
• mazzata
• mazzuola
• mazzuolo
• mazzetta
• mazziare
• mazziere
• mazzolare
• mazzacavallo
• mazzafionda
• ammazzare
• ammazzamento
• ammazzasette

Related words

• mazzare
• mazzarella
• mazzo
• French masse
• Latin mateola

Usage notes

DEI and Cortelazzo–Marcato record a separate dialect mazza “entrails” in Campania, Lazio and Sardinia, which goes back to Late Latin matia.^[7][16][9] The Tuscan farming word mazza “scion for grafting” is a form of marza.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2396
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 275
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET
17. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 976