sasso

Forms

sasso m (plural sassi or (obsolete) sassa f)^[1] Old spellings include Old Italian saxo and Old Italian xasso, and the old plural was also the feminine le sassa.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin saxum (“rock, boulder”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin word survives in few Romance languages, as Friulian sas, Ladin sas and Portuguese seixo “pebble”; in most it gave way to petra, the source of pietra.^[3][7][1]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *saksom.^[8][1] Its further origin is disputed.^[5][8] Nocentini, Devoto and DEI connect it with secō (“to cut”), comparing Old Norse sax and Old High German sahs “knife, short sword”, with the same motivation as rūpēs (“cliff”) beside rumpō (“to break”).^[5][9][3] De Vaan rejects this: the root of the verb for “cut” cannot explain the Latin /a/, the Germanic words would need a root otherwise unknown, and a link between “rock” and “knife” is not evident, so the Latin word has no certain etymology.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, is the first to use sasso, for stone as it is found in nature and for a mountain.^[4] The Fiore (1280–1310) has the sense “pebble, fragment of stone”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

By the early 14th century the word also meant a gravestone, first in Cino da Pistoia before 1337.^[4] In Dante sasso is often a rock face or mountain: the crudo sasso intra Tevero e Arno is La Verna, where St Francis received the stigmata, and the sasso of the Purgatorio is the mountain itself.^[10][6] Petrarch used it for a tomb.^[6]

The rock sense survives in place names such as the Gran Sasso, and the Sassi of Matera are the old cave dwellings cut into the rock.^[10][11] Figurative uses rest on hardness: cuore di sasso “heart of stone”, rimanere di sasso “to be stunned”.^[12][10] Derivatives appeared over the centuries: sassoso (before 1292, from Latin saxōsus), sassaiola “stone-throwing fight” (late 14th century), sassata (1483) and sasseto (1768).^[4]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses sassoso.^[4]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses sasso for stone and for a mountain.^[4]
• 1280–1310 – The Fiore has the sense “pebble”.^[4]
• Before 1337 – Cino da Pistoia uses it for a gravestone.^[4]
• Late 14th century – Sassaiola is recorded.^[4]
• 1483 – Luigi Pulci uses sassata.^[4]
• Before 1585 – Sassaia is recorded for a stony place.^[4]
• 1768 – Sasseto is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stone or pebble, a small fragment of rock: lanciare un sasso nel fiume.^[6][12]
2. rock, stony material: una cappella scavata nel sasso.^[6][11]
3. A large block of rock, a boulder.^[6][13]
4. (literary) A rocky mountain or cliff; the peak of a mountain, especially in place names.^[6][11]
5. A cave;^[6][10] (chiefly plural) the cave dwellings of Matera, the Sassi.^[6][10]
6. (literary) A gravestone or tomb.^[6][11]
7. A worked or carved stone.^[6]

Word family

• sassaia
• sassaiola
• sassata
• sasseo
• sasseto
• sassoso
• sassolino

Related words

• pietra
• Latin saxum
• Portuguese seixo

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include lanciare un sasso nello stagno “to stir up controversy on purpose”, gettare il sasso e nascondere la mano “to do harm while hiding one's part”, and tirare sassi in piccionaia “to act against one's own interests”.^[12][13][14] A un tiro di sasso means “a stone's throw away”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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, p. 17, 587
3. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3345
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli