mortaio

Forms

mortaio m (plural mortai)^[1] The old form Old Italian mortaro survived beside mortaio; the TLIO also records Old Italian mortar and Old Italian murtaru.^[2][3][4] Old Italian sometimes had a feminine plural le mortara.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mortārium (“bowl for pounding, mortar”).^[6][7][8][1] The same word is French mortier, Occitan mortier, Catalan morter, Spanish mortero and Portuguese morteiro; it also passed into German Mörser and Basque mortairu.^[7][9]

The origin of the Latin word is not certain.^[6][4] Nocentini places it in the family of mordeō (“to bite”), whose first sense was “to grind”.^[7] De Vaan suggests Proto-Italic *morto- (“ground”), from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥tós, from the root of morior (“to die”), which meant “to crush, destroy” in some languages.^[10][1] The OLD compares Sanskrit मृणाति (mr̥ṇāti, “crushes”) and Ancient Greek μαραίνω (maraínō, “to quench, destroy”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Andrea da Grosseto in 1268, and DELI's in Florentine texts of 1288–1290, both with the sense of a vessel for pounding things to powder or paste with a pestle.^[2][6][8] A Florentine account records that “the mortar and other small things” cost six soldi.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the mortar served the kitchen, the apothecary and the painter: in the Decameron a character asks to borrow a stone mortar to make a sauce, and Cennini grinds pigment in a bronze mortaro.^[5] The word was also used as a veiled name for the female genitals, a use that survives in vulgar speech.^[2][8]

From the 15th century mortaio also named a short-barrelled piece of artillery, from its likeness to the vessel.^[7][12] The diminutive mortaretto, first a small military piece, became the firecracker of displays and celebrations (1686, G. Montanari).^[6] The GDLI's supplement records the word also for a soldier trained to fire mortars, in Rigoni Stern.^[13]

Craft senses followed the shape: a square pit for the last stage of tanning, a furnace for melting metal, and the bowl of a ship's compass; in anatomy the mortaio tibioperoneo is the socket of the ankle joint.^[8][3][14]

Timeline

• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses the word.^[2][4]
• 1288–1290 – Florentine texts record mortaio.^[6][8]
• 15th century – The word is applied to a short-barrelled gun.^[7]
• 1686 – Mortaretto “firecracker” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mortar: a bowl of stone, metal, wood, glass or porcelain in which substances are ground to powder or paste with a pestle: Ha pestato il basilico nel mortaio.^[8][3][15]
2. (military) A mortar: a short-barrelled artillery piece firing at a steep angle at nearby targets.^[8][3][15]
3. (historical) A square pit in which the tanning of hides was finished.^[8][3][16]
4. (historical) A small furnace for melting metals.^[8][3]
5. (nautical) mortaio della bussola: the bowl holding the liquid in which a compass card floats.^[3][4][16]
6. (anatomy) mortaio tibioperoneo: the socket formed by the ends of the tibia and fibula at the ankle.^[8][14]
7. (vulgar) The female genitals.^[8]

Word family

• mortaretto
• mortaista
• mortaiata

Related words

• mortiere
• Latin mortarium
• French mortier

Usage notes

Pestare l'acqua nel mortaio “to pound water in the mortar” means to labour in vain.^[4][12][16] The saying ogni mortaio trova il suo pestello is said, often with a double meaning, of a plain woman who has found a husband.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ 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. 10, 936
6. ^ a b c d e f 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 e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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
9. ^ 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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. Supplemento 2009
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli