satollo

Forms

satollo (feminine satolla, masculine plural satolli, feminine plural satolle)^[1] An old variant is sattolo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin satullus (“sated, replete”), properly a diminutive of satur (“full, sated”), with its derived verb satullō.^{[3][4][5][1][6]} DEI suggests that the adjective may be a back-formation from the verb, which Varro already uses.^[7] Tommaseo noted that the diminutive suffix has no diminutive meaning here, as in Latin auricula.^[8]

The Latin word survives across Romance: Romanian sătul, Dalmatian satoil, Romansh saduol, Old French saoul, French soûl (“drunk”), Occitan sadol (“sated; drunk”) and Catalan sadoll (“sated”).^[4][9][10] Romanian also made the compound Romanian destul (“enough”) from it.^[9]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *seh₂- (“to satiate”), the root of Latin satis (“enough”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, with the sense “sated, full of food”;^[3][5] GRADIT dates the word before 1294.^[3][5] The Novellino also has a figurative use, saying of a man that he had been sated with every worldly thing except giving (di tutte le cose del mondo era stato satollo, salvo che di donare).^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Bono Giamboni writes that the man who is bene satollo gives off foul breath, Jacopone da Todi sets eo satollo against Christ's hunger, and Dante recalls the centaurs who fought Theseus satolli, gorged.^[2] In the Paradiso Dante speaks of the bread of the angels, on which one lives here but never goes away satollo.^[13][8] The figurative sense “satisfied, content” appears in Machiavelli: I potenti di lor potenza non son mai satolli (“the powerful are never sated with their power”).^[14]

The noun satolla, a bellyful, and the phrase fare satolla, to gorge oneself, are recorded from the 13th century, in Jacopone and Boccaccio.^[15][7] Tuscan dialect later had dormire la satolla, to sleep after a meal.^[7] A Tuscan proverb says that boys and chickens are never satolli.^[12]

Today the adjective is Tuscan or literary, beside the common sazio;^[11][8] Tommaseo already found it less used than sazio and without that word's senses of excess.^[11][8]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – First record.^[5]
• End of the 13th century – The Novellino uses satollo and the verb satollare.^[3]
• Late 13th century – Jacopone da Todi uses the noun satolla for a full belly.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary or Tuscan) Sated, replete: having eaten one's fill.^{[5][16][13][11][1]}
2. (figurative, archaic) Satisfied, content.^{[5][16][13][14]}

Word family

• satollare
• satollezza
• satollamento

Related words

• sazio
• saturo
• Latin satur
• French soûl

Usage notes

Wiktionary also lists satollo as the first person singular present of satollare.^[1] Tommaseo took the adjective as a shortened past participle of satollare.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 600
3. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3347
8. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
16. ^ 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