mazzuola

Forms

mazzuola f (plural mazzuole)^[1] The variant mazzola is popular.^[2][3][4] Old forms include masuola, mazola and mazuola.^[5]

Etymology

It is a diminutive formed from Italian mazza + -uolo, with the feminine form of the suffix.^{[6][7][8][2][9]} The base noun continues Vulgar Latin *mattea (“club”), of uncertain origin, which is also French masse, Occitan masa, Catalan maça, Spanish maza and Portuguese maça.^[7][8]

The classical language already had the diminutive Latin mateola (“mallet”), used by Cato, and DELI sets beside it a spoken *matteola, the source of the variant mazzola.^[7][10][11] Wiktionary leaves both routes open, and Körting took the Italian word straight from the Latin diminutive.^[1][12] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *matejā- and derives the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European *mot- (“club, hoe”), comparing Sanskrit मत्य (matya, “club, harrow”) and Old High German medela (“plough”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Lucchese poet Pietro de' Faitinelli, who died before 1349, with the sense “small wooden stick”.^[7][13][6] In his poem the staff is a sign of office: Veggio 'l vicar gittar giù la mazzuola “I see the vicar throw down his staff”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the word meant a small stick, cane or rod, and also a small short-handled club used as a weapon.^[13][5] Sacchetti describes a man who carried a mazzuola like a magistrate's rod, and in the old rite of the Church it was the rod with which a bishop struck the shoulders of the excommunicated when he readmitted them, a scene Sacchetti makes comic.^[5][14] The Tuscan translation of Crescenzi uses it for the stalks or shoots of saffron.^[14][13]

From the club came the instrument of execution, the mallet used to kill the condemned with blows to the head (mazzolamento).^[14][9][15] The craft senses grew up in printing, where a wooden mallet levels the type in a forme, in bookbinding, for flattening the spine, among goldsmiths and stonebreakers, and on ships for working stiff rope.^[6][4][9] In 1803 D'Alberti still gave it simply as the diminutive of mazza.^[7]

Timeline

• Before 1349 – Pietro de' Faitinelli uses mazzuola.^[7][13][6]
• 1803 – D'Alberti records it as the diminutive of mazza.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mallet with a wooden or steel head; the same as mazzuolo.^{[2][3][16][6]}
2. (printing) The wooden mallet used to level the type in a forme.^[6][2][15]
3. (bookbinding) A wooden mallet for flattening the spine of books.^[6][9]
4. A goldsmith's small hammer.^[4][15]
5. (archaic) A small stick or walking cane.^[6][2][9]
6. (historical) A short-handled club used to execute the condemned by blows to the head.^{[6][2][3][16]}

Related words

• mazza
• mazzuolo
• mazzolare
• Latin mateola

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
13. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana