mucchio

Forms

mucchio m (plural mucchi)^[1] Lucca and Umbria also have a feminine mucchia.^[2]

Etymology

It is most probably inherited from Latin mūtŭlus (“projecting stone, modillion”), as DELI, Nocentini and most dictionaries hold, following an explanation of Meyer-Lübke that is still generally accepted.^[3][4][5][6] The Latin word passed through a syncopated Vulgar Latin *mutlus.^[1][7] Meyer-Lübke thought the sense “heap” easy to explain from “boundary stone” and “pile of stones”.^[5] The same Latin word gave Romanian muche (“edge”), Logudorese muiu (“thick trunk”), Gardenese mudl (“big haystack”) and Old French muel, and was borrowed as Basque mukulu (“heap”).^[5][2] A derivative is Catalan molló, from which come Spanish mojón (“boundary stone; heap”) and the Sardinian and Emilian forms of the same type.^[5]

Other explanations have been put forward.^[3] Canello and Storm saw a metathesis of Latin cumulus (“heap”), through *muculus or through the verb ammucchiare;^[3][1] Salvioni started from Latin meta (“cone, turning post”);^[3][5] Braune proposed a Germanic source, and Maria Giovanna Arcamone takes it up as a Lombardic loan from a Germanic family meaning “to hide away provisions or money”.^[3][7] Meyer-Lübke judged all of these equally unlikely.^[5] GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti call the origin uncertain or disputed.^[6][8]

The Latin word was a term of architecture, and the OLD and Wiktionary suggest it was taken from Etruscan.^[9][1] Nocentini links it with a pre-Latin root *mutt-, meaning “mound of earth”, which he also sees in motta.^[4][10] Through learned channels the same Latin word is the source of modiglione.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), where Forlì is the city that had made di Franceschi sanguinoso mucchio (“a bloody heap of Frenchmen”).^[3][11][4] The sense is a pile of things heaped together, the sense the word still has.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Early writers used the word for the heaps of the dead after a battle, as in the commentary of Guido da Pisa, and for any pile of objects.^[11][12] The figurative sense “a large amount” is found from the 15th century, in the Pataffio.^[3] With an indefinite article the word came to be used as an adverb, un mucchio “a great deal”.^[6][13][8]

Tommaseo–Bellini records tirare al mucchio, to shoot without aiming, which survives as sparare nel mucchio, to accuse a whole group without distinction;^[12][14][15] mettere tutti in un mucchio means to lump everyone together.^[12][14][15]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses mucchio in the Inferno.^[3]
• Mid-14th century – The verb ammucchiare appears.^[4]
• 15th century – The sense “a large amount” appears in the Pataffio.^[3]
• 15th century – The diminutive mucchierello is used by Pulci.^[2]
• 17th century – The diminutive mucchietto is recorded.^[2]
• 1971 – Ammucchiata is first recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heap or pile of things gathered together, usually untidily: Sul tavolo c’era un mucchio di giornali vecchi.^[6][13][8]
2. (colloquial) A large amount or number: un mucchio di lavoro, un mucchio di amici.^[6][8][16]
3. (colloquial, adverbial) un mucchio, a lot, very much: Quel film mi è piaciuto un mucchio.^[6][13][8]
4. (technical) A simple kiln made of a heap of material and fuel, formerly used to process ores.^[6][13]

Word family

• ammucchiare
• ammucchiata
• mucchietto

Related words

• motta
• modiglione
• Latin mutulus

Usage notes

Fixed phrases: a mucchi, in great quantity, and sparare nel mucchio, to attack a group indiscriminately.^[6][14] GRADIT lists two minor words of the same spelling: a regional name of the stingray (from 1958), traced to Late Latin būculus “young bullock”, and a regional name of the rock rose (Cistus), from 1834.^[6][14][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2523
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ 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. 11
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana