raschiare

Forms

raschiare (first-person singular present ràschio, first-person singular past historic raschiài, past participle raschiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Older forms are Old Italian rascare and Old Italian rasciare, and the popular Tuscan form is rastiare, which the dictionaries widely accepted.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *rasclāre, a verb formed on *rasclum, the same as Latin rāsculum, a parallel form of rāstrum (“rake”).^[3][5][6][7] Wiktionary and Devoto–Oli see in it a shortened *rāsculāre, and several dictionaries explain rāsculum as “a tool for shaving”, from rādō (“to shave, scrape”).^{[1][8][9][10][11]}

The FEW prefers a Vulgar Latin *rasiculāre, a diminutive of *rasāre.^[5][3] Nocentini answers that the technical senses of Occitan rasclar (“to harrow”) and Catalan rasclar (“to rake”) point to a rake, and that *rasclum itself survives in Spanish rascle, a drag for fishing coral, and Portuguese racha (“rake”).^[5] The same verb gave French racler (“to scrape”) and râler (“to rattle in the throat”).^[5][12][13]

raschio is a deverbal noun of the verb, and the dialects keep nouns from the Latin tool name.^[3] At San Miniato raschiello is a rake for spreading seed, shaped by rastrello.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded as rascar in the Proverbia que dicuntur super natura feminarum (1152–1160), and as raschiare in the sermons of Giordano da Pisa, who died in 1311, for rubbing a surface hard to smooth or clean it.^[3][5][14] Giordano uses it in an image of his own: questo asempio del raschiare non è in tutto buono, “this example of scraping is not altogether good”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb named scraping a surface to smooth it or to remove crusts and dirt, with a knife, a shard or the nails: Maestro Martino's cookery book says a large fish should not be scraped, and the Ricettario fiorentino cleans roots by scraping them with a knife.^[2] Its derivatives soon followed: raschiamento in Giordano da Pisa, raschiatura for the scrapings in Pegolotti before 1347, raschiatoio for the tool in Biringuccio before 1537.^[3]

The surgical sense came with raschiamento, perhaps already in Lorenzo Bellini before 1704.^[3] The noun raschio, the scraping of the throat, dates from the first half of the 18th century.^[5][4] In modern Italian raschiare il fondo del barile is to scrape the bottom of the barrel, to use up one's last resources.^[14][9][10]

Timeline

• 1152–1160 – Rascar appears in the Proverbia que dicuntur super natura feminarum.^[3][5]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses raschiare and raschiamento.^[3]
• Before 1347 – Pegolotti uses raschiatura for the scrapings.^[3]
• Before 1537 – Biringuccio names the tool raschiatoio.^[3]
• Before 1642 – Galileo uses raschiata.^[3]
• 1863 – Raschietto is recorded in Fanfani's Tuscan dictionary.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To scrape a surface hard with a rough or sharp tool to smooth or clean it: Ha raschiato il vecchio bancone con la paglietta.^{[14][8][9][1]}
2. (transitive) To scrape off a layer, rust, paint or a crust: raschiare la vernice da una ringhiera.^[14][8][6]
3. (transitive, medicine) To curette, to remove tissue by surgical scraping.^[14][8][15]
4. (intransitive) To rub against something with a harsh, grating noise.^[14][8][15]
5. (pronominal) raschiarsi la gola: to clear one's throat, also to catch someone's attention.^{[14][8][9][1]}
6. (figurative) raschiare il fondo del barile: to scrape the bottom of the barrel, to use up one's last resources.^[14][9][10]

Word family

• raschiamento
• raschiatura
• raschiatoio
• raschiata
• raschietto
• raschio
• raschiatore

Related words

• rastrello
• radere
• Latin rāsculum
• French racler

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 15, 501
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 825
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3209
8. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
14. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana