scalzo

Forms

scalzo (feminine scalza, masculine plural scalzi, feminine plural scalze)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin excalceus (“unshod”), formed from excalceō (“to take off someone's shoes”), the verb that also gave scalzare, which is built on calceus (“shoe”) with the prefix ex-.^[2][3][4][5] GRADIT, Zingarelli and Treccani call the adjective Late Latin and a word of the Church.^[3][6][5] The LEI notes that its descendants are found only in Italo-Romance; the one Spanish example, from before 1550, is an isolated learned form or a loan from Italian.^[7]

Nocentini and Devoto–Oli see the word instead as a short past participle of the Italian verb, and Devoto as extracted from its full participle.^[8][9][10] Wiktionary weighs both explanations and also lets the Latin adjective be a shortening of excalceātus (“barefoot”).^[1][11]

The other Romance languages have words with another prefix, from discalceus: French déchaux, Occitan descaus, Catalan descalç, Spanish descalzo, Portuguese descalço and Romanian desculț.^[12][1] Meyer-Lübke listed the Italian word with them.^[12] The older language also had Old Italian discalzo.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in 13th-century Florentine texts: an emperor goes a piedi scalzi, barefoot, for many days over snow and ice to ask the pope's pardon.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

Dante, before 1321, calls the first followers of St Francis i primi scalzi poverelli, “the first barefoot poor men”.^[2][5] From then on it also described the friars and nuns whose rule had them go without shoes or stockings.^[2][14] Petrarch's old woman rises to spin discinta e scalza, ungirt and barefoot.^[5][15] Regional forms appear early: Tuscan scalço (1314), Trevisan scalça (early 14th century), Paduan scalzo (before 1389).^[7]

In the 15th century Pulci used it of a bare, unarmed hand.^[16] The name of the carmelitani scalzi, the Discalced Carmelites, is recorded in 1790.^[2] Being barefoot also stood for poverty, and the word could describe a person of low condition; that use is now dated.^[9][6][17] In the dialects the word is Neapolitan scauzo in Neapolitan and Sicilian scausu in Sicilian.^[1]

Timeline

• 1200s – Florentine texts use scalzo.^[2]
• Before 1306 – GRADIT's first date.^[3]
• 1314 – Tuscan scalço is recorded in Francesco da Barberino.^[7]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses scalzi of the first Franciscans.^[2]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses the word.^[7]
• 1400s – Pulci uses it of a bare, unarmed hand.^[16]
• 1790 – Carmelitani scalzi is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. barefoot, wearing neither shoes nor stockings; of feet, bare: i bambini correvano scalzi sulla spiaggia.^[3][9][4]
2. (dated, derogatory) Of a person: poor, of low condition.^[9][6][17]
3. (religion) discalced: belonging to an order whose rule prescribes sandals without stockings: carmelitani scalzi.^[3][9][4][6]

Noun

1. (religion) A member of a discalced order.^[3][16]

Word family

• scalzetto

Related words

• calza
• Latin excalceus
• Spanish descalzo

Usage notes

A technical scalzo, recorded from 1959 and probably formed from scalzare, is the side of a round cheese, between its two faces, and the height of that side.^[3][5][14] Tommaseo also notes scalzo as a short form of scalzato, the past participle of the verb.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ 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)
6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 1052
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 880
14. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3367
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana