puzzo

Forms

puzzo m (plural puzzi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian pucio and Old Italian pusso.^[2] The feminine puzza is used beside it.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pūtium, formed from Latin pūteō (“to rot, stink”).^[4][3][5][6] Merlo derived it instead from the first person singular of the Latin verb.^[4] REW rejects Gröber's Vulgar Latin *putidiare on phonetic grounds, and Wiktionary suggests a reduction of Latin putidus (“stinking”).^[6][1] The feminine puzza is from Vulgar Latin *pūtia.^[3]

The word is mainly central and northern Italian; in the south other words prevail.^[7] DEI and REW connect it with Romanian piatră pucioasă (“sulphur”), literally “stinking stone”, which would make the formation old.^[7][6] Medieval Latin pucia is recorded at Venice in 1227.^[4][7]

The Latin verb is related to Latin pūs (“pus”); the Oxford Latin Dictionary compares a Sanskrit word for “stinking” and Ancient Greek πύθω (púthō, “to make rot”).^[8] De Vaan, as Wiktionary reports him, suggests a base Proto-Indo-European *puH-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Rustico di Filippo, who died about 1300: Dio, com bene le stette a la sciaurata, / quand'ella sofferìa così gran puzzo! (“God, how it served the wretch right, when she suffered so great a stink!”).^[4][9] The meaning is a foul smell.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Dante's marsh round the city of Dis “breathes the great stench” (che 'l gran puzzo spira), and in Fra Giordano the sense of smell knows de' puzzi e degli odori.^[9] The feminine puzza first meant “filth” in Giordano (1305–1306); today it is the regional and everyday form of the same word.^[4][10]

The figurative sense “hint, suspicion” is recorded by Tommaseo in 1871 in the saying non se ne sente né puzzo né bruciaticcio, and lives on in sentire puzzo di bruciato, to smell a rat.^[4][11] A rarer sense is an excessive fuss about something.^[5][12] The verb puzzare (before 1342) took the place of older putire, and puzzola, the polecat, is named from the smell it gives off (1483, Pulci).^[4] Puzzone and puzzonata, a rotten person and a botched or dishonest act, are Roman words.^[4]

Timeline

• 1227 – Medieval Latin pucia is recorded at Venice.^[4]
• Before 1300 – Rustico di Filippo uses puzzo.^[4]
• 1305–1306 – Fra Giordano uses puzza for filth.^[4]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses the verb puzzare.^[4]
• 1483 – Luigi Pulci uses puzzola for the polecat.^[4]
• 1871 – Tommaseo records the figurative “hint, suspicion”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bad smell, stink, stench: In cantina c'era puzzo di muffa.^[5][12][10]
2. (figurative) A hint or suspicion of something bad: puzzo di truffa;^[5][12][13] sentire puzzo di bruciato, to sense that something is wrong.^[5][12][13]
3. (figurative, uncommon) An excessive fuss about something.^[5][12][11]

Word family

• puzzare
• puzzola
• puzzolente
• puzzone
• puzzonata
• appuzzare
• impuzzolire
• impuzzolentire
• puzzoso
• puzzore

Related words

• putido
• putire
• putore
• puzza
• Latin pūteō

Usage notes

Puzzo and puzza are the same word;^[10][3] Sabatini–Coletti labels puzza regional.^[10][3] Puzzo is also the first person singular present of puzzare.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3161
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 14, 1076
10. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org