scafa

Forms

scafa f (plural scafe)^[1] Old Italian forms include iscafa, scabe, scafra and schafa.^[2] The GDLI also records an old scaffa.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scapha (“light boat, skiff”),^[1][4][5] from Ancient Greek σκάφη (skáphē, “light boat, skiff”),^[6][1][7] which is formed on σκάπτω (skáptō, “to dig”), so properly “something hollowed out”.^[8][4][9][5] The Greek word also meant a vessel, basin or tub, and Meyer-Lübke gives the Latin word the senses “boat”, “tub” and “bowl”.^[10][11] From the same Latin word came Old French escafe (“shell, husk”).^[12][11] DELI describes the Greek verb as of Indo-European origin, without giving a form.^[5]

The regional sense “pod”, recorded from the 16th century, is a metaphor from the boat, for the shape.^[5][13] DEI treats it under a separate heading, but derives it from the boat word all the same, and compares Medieval Latin scafus (“bean pod”), recorded at Montelibretti in the 15th century.^[12] From it comes the Roman verb scafare, “to shell beans”.^[5][13][14]

The noun scafo, the hull of a ship, is a separate loan, of the related σκάφος (skáphos, “hull, keel”).^[5][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Pisan document of 1288, where the word names a small boat for short crossings of the sea or of rivers, or for fishing.^[2] Giamboni has a man cross a river con una scafa di pescatore, “in a fisherman's boat”, in great fear.^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word also meant a lifeboat and a fast boat for raiding.^[2] The Pisan chronicler Ranieri Sardo tells of a flood in which one could get about Pisa only con gondule e battelli o scafe, and a ponte di scafe was a bridge of boats.^[15] The man who steered a scafa was a scafaiuolo.^[16][12]

The historical dictionaries and the modern ones divide the boat by period: in ancient Rome a boat without sails that linked the warships to the coast and served as a lifeboat, in the Middle Ages a boat serving a larger ship, and in the 17th and 18th centuries any small craft on the sea or on rivers.^{[4][7][10][3]} Tommaseo already marks the word as obsolete.^[15]

The sense “pod”, and “broad bean”, belongs to Umbria and Lazio.^[12][14][17] DELI cites the observation that it covers a wider area than Rome, and that in central and southern Tuscan dialects scafare also means “to change coat” (of animals) and “to civilise”.^[5] From this the Roman scafarsi, “to lose one's rough edges”, entered Italian in 1942, and scafato, “streetwise”, in 1959.^[5][13]

Timeline

• 1288 – A Pisan document records scafa, a small boat.^[2]
• Before 1292 – the date GRADIT and Zingarelli give for the first record.^[4][9]
• 14th century – scafa “sink” appears in Tuscan and Venetian musical poetry.^[2]
• 15th century – Medieval Latin scafus “bean pod” is recorded at Montelibretti.^[12]
• 16th century – Berni uses scafa for a pod.^[12]
• 1846 – Scafare “to shell” is recorded.^[5]
• 1942 – Scafare “to make less rough” is recorded as a Roman word.^[5]
• 1959 – Scafato “streetwise” is recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history, nautical) In ancient Rome, a small rowing boat without sails, used to link larger ships with the coast or as a lifeboat.^[4][7][10]
2. (history, nautical) In the Middle Ages, a boat that served a larger ship as a tender.^[4][7][10]
3. (history, nautical) In the 17th and 18th centuries, any small craft used on the sea or on rivers.^[4][7][10]
4. (regional, central Italy) A pod, especially of the broad bean; a broad bean.^[8][17][1]

Word family

• scafare
• scafaiuolo

Related words

• scafo
• Latin scapha

Usage notes

GRADIT lists a separate regional scafa “sink”, from the 14th century, which it derives, probably, from Latin scaphe (“bowl”), and under which it also puts the sense “broad bean”.^[4] The TLIO instead takes the sense “basin, sink” as an extension of the boat word.^[2] Cortelazzo and Marcato record scafa “sink” in Friulian, Venetian and Romagnol, and in Venice far la scafa is said of a child about to cry; they call its origin uncertain, either Greek or a Lombardic word for a board rack.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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. 17, 738
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. ^ 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
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
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 Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3361
13. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 878
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana