pertugio

Forms

pertugio m (plural pertugi)^[1] The old and regional form is pertuso.^[2][3][4] Zingarelli marks it as northern and obsolete.^[5]

Etymology

It is from Italian pertugiare (“to pierce, to bore”), an old verb that Dante also uses, and DELI, Nocentini and Devoto read the noun as its deverbal.^[6][7][8] The verb continues a spoken Vulgar Latin *pertūsiāre, formed on Latin pertūsus (“perforated”), the past participle of pertundō (“to bore through”).^[6][7][1][9] That verb is a compound of per (“through”) and tundō (“to beat, to strike”).^[6][7]

GRADIT derives the noun directly from Medieval Latin pertusium instead.^[10] Prati, the DEI and the GDLI point to the same noun, which is recorded in the Reichenau Glosses of the 8th century.^[11][12][13]

Its cognates include French pertuis (“hole”) and percer (“to pierce”), the source of English pierce.^[7] A variant *pertusāre gave Occitan pertuzar and pertus, Sardinian pertusare and pertùsu, and Neapolitan pertosare and pertùso.^[7][14] Wiktionary compares Sicilian pirtusu.^[1] Prati thought the old Old Italian pertuso and pertusare perhaps taken from Old Occitan pertus and pertusar, though dialect forms may require a Latin *pertusum.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first form on record is pertuso, in the Bestiario toscano of about 1300.^[6] DELI dates pertugio itself before 1321, in Dante, with the senses “hole, opening” and “very narrow place”.^[6] GRADIT gives about 1300 for the word and Zingarelli before 1294.^[10][5] In the Inferno Dante and Virgil climb out of hell until the poet sees the beauties of the sky “through a round opening” (per un pertugio tondo).^[13]

Semantic evolution

From Dante on the word names any small hole or gap: in a vessel's lid in the Italian Livy, in a tree trunk for draining excess sap in the Italian Crescenzi, and in the cross in a sermon of San Bernardino da Siena.^[13] In a novella of Boccaccio a monk puts his eye to a small hole and sees the abbot listening.^[15][4] In technical use it came to mean the seat of a pin, the bunghole of a barrel, the drain of a sink, the eye of a needle and the eyepiece of a telescope.^[13]

By extension it is a passage or opening too narrow for comfort, and a little free space, as when Manzoni's convent girls squeeze between the nuns to make themselves room to see.^[4][10] Physical geography uses pertugio beante for a fissure in karst ground that swallows the surface water.^[2][3][4] Treccani marks the word as old and literary, while GRADIT counts it as common.^[16][10]

Timeline

• 8th century – The Reichenau Glosses record the Late Latin noun pertusium.^[12][13]
• About 1300 – The form pertuso appears in the Bestiario toscano.^[6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses pertugio and the verb pertugiare.^[6]
• 1861 – Tommaseo–Bellini defines it as a hole or fissure, with quotations from Dante and Boccaccio.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hole, usually small, in a continuous surface, a crack: un pertugio nel muro.^[10][3][4]
2. (by extension) A very narrow opening or passage.^[10][16][17]
3. (by extension) A little free space: frugare in ogni pertugio, to search every nook.^[10][4]
4. (geography) pertugio beante: a fissure in karst ground through which surface water drains away.^[2][3][4]

Related words

• pertuso
• French pertuis
• Latin pertundo

Usage notes

Wiktionary gives both /perˈtu.ʒo/ and /perˈtu.d͡ʒo/, and calls the affricate of today's usual pronunciation a hypercorrection.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 763
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2868
13. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 132
14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli