salsiccia

Forms

salsiccia f (plural salsicce)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin salsīcia, a neuter plural that Italian took as a feminine singular.^[2][3][4] DELI notes that this plural is not securely attested in Latin, and Nocentini explains the word by ellipsis from the Late Latin phrase farta salsīcia (“salted stuffing, sausages”).^[2][3] Prati gives the phrase as a Latin form of the 2nd century.^[5]

DELI, the GDLI and Zingarelli see in it a blend of Latin salsus (“salted”) with īnsicia (“minced meat, meatball”), a compound of in and a derivative of secō (“to cut”).^[2][6][7] DEI and Treccani start from a glossed adjective salsicius (“seasoned with salt”), which replaced īnsicium in this sense.^[8][9] Devoto–Oli and Devoto start from the same Latin noun in the sense “cut meat”, crossed with salsa (“salted”), and Sabatini–Coletti call the etymology discussed.^[10][11][12] Meyer-Lübke rejected Diez's derivation from the salted adjective alone as morphologically impossible, while Körting still preferred Diez's view to Caix's salis insicia.^[13][14] Classical Latin called a sausage farcīmen.^[1]

The same word is French saucisse and Old Occitan sausisa, and it was borrowed into Welsh as selsig.^[13] Spanish salchicha, Portuguese salsicha and Catalan salsitxa were taken from Italian.^[3][13][1] The Latin adjective is the past participle of the verb for salting, from sāl (“salt”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sḗh₂l.^[15][1] The popular variant salciccia owes its first syllables to folk association with ciccia “meat”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the northern form saziza in the 13th-century poems of the Anonimo Genovese, who lists “sazize e presuti” (sausages and hams) among the stores of a well-kept house.^[2][6] The TLIO's first text is the Bolognese Serventese dei Lambertazzi of the late 13th century, and the sense from the start is minced meat stuffed with salt and spices into an animal's gut.^[16] The form salsiccia appears in 1344, in the Libro della Mensa.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old texts show many forms, among them salcicia, salsicia, sazize and sossiça,^[16] and DEI records an old sense “salted fish” in the 14th century.^[8] In Boccaccio's land of Bengodi the vines are tied up with sausages, and legare le viti con le salsicce came to mean living in plenty and waste.^[7][9]

By analogy the word named the long canvas or leather bags filled with powder that served as fuses for mines and fireships, a naval term DEI dates to the 19th century, and in old fortification the fascines that held up earthworks.^[8][7][4] Recent senses are a spongy float that soaks up pollutants spilt at sea, and, in vulgar use, the penis.^[4][10][1] The figurative far salsicce di qualcuno means to beat someone up.^[4][7]

Derivatives include salsicciotto, a large sausage (before 1484, Piovano Arlotto), and salsicciaio, a sausage-maker, recorded in the Medieval Latin of Modena in the 14th century and in Italian before 1543 (Firenzuola).^[2] German had Salsicie by the end of the 16th century, and English recorded salsiccia perhaps in 1635.^[17]

Timeline

• 1200s – The Anonimo Genovese writes sazize “sausages”.^[2][6]
• Late 1200s – The Bolognese Serventese dei Lambertazzi has the word.^[16]
• 1344 – The form salsiccia appears in the Libro della Mensa.^[2]
• 1300s – Salsicciaio “sausage-maker” is recorded in Medieval Latin at Modena.^[2]
• Before 1484 – Piovano Arlotto uses salsicciotto.^[2]
• Late 1500s – German Salsicie is recorded.^[17]
• 1635 – English salsiccia may first be recorded.^[17]
• 1800s – DEI dates the naval sense “powder-filled fuse bag”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. sausage: minced meat, usually pork, seasoned with salt and spices and stuffed into thin casings tied off in links, mostly eaten cooked: A cena abbiamo mangiato salsiccia e fagioli.^[4][10][12]
2. One link of such a sausage.^[9]
3. (historical) A long bag of canvas or leather filled with gunpowder, used as a fuse for mines and fireships.^[4][10][7]
4. A spongy float used to soak up pollutants spilt at sea.^[4][10][12]
5. (vulgar) The penis.^[4][10][1]

Word family

• salsicciaio
• salsicciotto
• salsiccione
• salsicciata

Related words

• ciccia
• salso
• sale
• Latin sāl
• French saucisse

Usage notes

The popular and regional form is salciccia.^[10][12][18] Salsicce di Vienna or di Francoforte are frankfurters, more often called würstel.^[10][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 868
6. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3322
9. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
16. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
17. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana