moscio

Forms

moscio (feminine moscia, masculine plural mosci, feminine plural mosce)^[1] Old and southern forms include Old Italian mussu.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin musteus (“like must; fresh”), an adjective derived from mustum (“must, new wine”).^[3][4][5][1] DELI traces the meaning from “like must” to “sticky”, and also to “tender, fresh”, said for example of cheese, as in a Calabrian name for fresh cheese that matches a Latin phrase of caseus (“cheese”) with the adjective.^[3][6] Nocentini goes from “fresh” to “soft”.^[4] Devoto points out the same treatment of the consonants as in poscia and uscio: Latin /stj/ gave /ʃʃ/.^[7]

The word is found in central Italy and in Gallo-Romance: Old French mois and Old Occitan mois “damp, flabby”, and Catalan moix “dull, sad”.^[4][6][8] Southern and northern dialects have Sicilian musu and Ligurian musu, and the word passed into Basque mustiu (“cider”).^[8][6]

Latin mustus (“fresh, young”), from which the noun comes, is of unclear origin: de Vaan finds a derivation from a root meaning “to be cheerful” possible in theory but semantically gratuitous.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Florentine Libro del difenditore della pace of 1363, where the word is said of cheese and means soft, tender; the TLIO also records it for damp air.^[2] DELI's first record is in Pietro Aretino in 1536, who uses it as a typically Tuscan word for “limp”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From “soft” the adjective went to plants and fruit: a Tuscan dictionary of 1614 explains it as said of herbs and fruit that wilt and go limp, and Marino uses it for “withered” before 1625.^[3] The figurative sense “dejected, downcast” follows before 1686, in Frugoni.^[3] Modern Italian adds the sense of a person lacking energy or character and of an event lacking liveliness, a dull party or show.^[5][10]

The dictionaries disagree on its date: DEI dates the word only to the 19th century, and Nocentini and Devoto–Oli to before 1902, while Zingarelli has it before 1508.^{[6][4][10][11]} In the phrase erre moscia it names the uvular pronunciation of /r/.^[5][10][1]

Timeline

• 1363 – The Libro del difenditore della pace calls cheese moscio, soft.^[2]
• 1536 – Pietro Aretino uses it as a Tuscan word for “limp”.^[3]
• 1614 – A Tuscan dictionary defines it for wilting herbs and fruit.^[3]
• Before 1625 – Marino uses it for “withered”.^[3]
• Before 1686 – Frugoni uses it figuratively for “dejected”.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. limp, flabby; lacking firmness: una guancia moscia e rugosa.^{[5][10][11][1]}
2. (figurative) Lacking energy, vitality or character; of an event, lacking liveliness, dull: una serata moscia.^[5][10][1]
3. (figurative) dejected, downcast: l'ho trovato moscio dopo la partita.^[5][10][11]
4. (vulgar) Of the penis, flaccid.^[1]

Word family

• ammosciare
• smosciarsi
• mosciamente
• moscezza

Related words

• mosto
• Latin musteus

Usage notes

Erre moscia is the uvular or otherwise non-standard pronunciation of the letter r.^[5][10][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2517
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli