nassa

Forms

nassa f (plural nasse)^[1] A variant is Old Italian nasso.^[2] An old and dialect form is Old Italian nascia.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nassa (“wicker fish trap”), a word of uncertain origin.^[4][5][6][7] The same word is French nasse, Catalan nansa, Spanish nasa and Portuguese nassa, as well as Friulian nase and Romansh nassa.^[7][8]

Nocentini, de Vaan and the OLD connect it, since the trap is made of plaited wicker, with Latin nectō (“to tie, plait”) and nōdus (“knot”).^[7][9][10] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *nHd-to- (“tied, knotted”) and compares Old Irish nascaid (“binds”) and Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐍄𐌹 (nati, “net”) with Old English net, while noting that it is disputed which of these forms belong together.^[9] Others call the word Mediterranean.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Sienese statutes of about 1303, which forbid anyone to set a nassa or similar trap in the ditches of the marsh.^[2][3] The sense is the fish trap: a cage of net or plaited wicker, baited and laid on the bottom, with compartments that grow smaller.^[2]

Semantic evolution

By the mid-14th century the word was known from Pisa to Sicily: Senisio's Sicilian glossary of 1348 explains Latin gurgustium as the wicker vessel that catches fish, “commonly called nassa”, and Cecco Nuccoli of Perugia writes of being like a fish in a nassa.^[2] Guido da Pisa uses it of the pitched basket in which Moses was laid in the river.^[2][3] The vernacular Crescenzi describes the round wicker nasse, narrow at the mouth and wide outside, weighed down with a stone.^[13][4]

Later uses were transferred to things of similar shape: a trap for birds, a cone-shaped glass flask with a spout that apothecaries in late Renaissance Tuscany used for liquids that evaporate, and, in scientific Latin, a genus of sea snails.^[5][14][15] A Tuscan proverb says al levar delle nasse si vede la pesca, the catch is seen when the traps are lifted.^[13]

Timeline

• About 1303 – Sienese statutes mention the nassa.^[2]
• Before 1337 – Guido da Pisa uses it of Moses' basket.^[2]
• 1348 – Senisio glosses Latin gurgustium with nassa.^[2]
• About 1350 – The vernacular Crescenzi describes how nasse are made.^[4]
• 17th century – Nassa names an apothecary's glass flask.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fish trap or lobster pot: a cage of wicker, rushes or wire with a funnel-shaped mouth that lets fish, crustaceans and squid in but not out.^[5][11][17]
2. A similar trap of net or wicker used for catching birds.^[5][6]
3. (historical) A cone-shaped glass flask with a spout, used by apothecaries in the Renaissance.^[5][6][14]
4. (zoology) A sea snail of the genus Nassa; with a capital, the genus.^[5][11]

Word family

• nassaride
• nasside

Related words

• nodo
• nesso
• Latin nassa
• French nasse

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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, 207
4. ^ a b c 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 f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 208
16. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2550
17. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse