scavare

Forms

scavare (first-person singular present scàvo, first-person singular past historic scavài, past participle scavàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin excavō (“to hollow out”), formed from ex- and cavō (“to make hollow”), which comes from cavus (“hollow”).^[2][3][4][1] Devoto takes the prefix as one of extraction, the GDLI as intensive or of removal.^[5][6]

The Latin verb survives with the loss of the initial vowel only in Italo-Romance, Friulian sgiavá and a few local Gallo-Romance forms; with the vowel kept it gave Occitan escavar and Portuguese escavar.^[7][3][8] The learned doublet is escavare, taken from Latin again in the 14th century.^[7][3][9]

The Latin adjective is from Proto-Indo-European *ḱouH-ó- (“hollow”), with cognates in Old Irish cúa (“hollow”) and Ancient Greek κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Zingarelli date the first record to before 1320;^[4][11][2] Medieval Latin scavare is already found at Bologna in 1273.^[4][11][2] DELI's first dated sense, to make a hole in the ground, comes from the Italian translation of Crescenzi of about 1350, where rivers in flood scavano e scalzano le ripe (“dig out and undermine the banks”) of the fields.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

Giovanni Villani used the verb for digging corpses out of their tombs, and later writers for extracting minerals.^[6] The general sense “to make hollow” is recorded in 1550, the figurative “to investigate thoroughly” before 1712 in Magalotti, and “to bring to light” in 1940.^[2] In 1872 Tommaseo records le scava di sotto terra, said of someone who comes up with odd ideas or unexpected tricks.^[2]

The noun scavo meant a hollow before 1537 and an archaeological excavation in 1803, in a book on the digs at Herculaneum and Pompeii.^[2] The proverb la goccia scava la pietra translates Latin gutta cavat lapidem.^[13] In the 19th century the LEI finds a farming term for a potato digger, taken from the German Kartoffelgraber of a treatise of 1861 by Carl Schneitler.^[7]

Timeline

• 1273 – Scavare is recorded in the Medieval Latin of Bologna.^[2]
• Before 1320 – First record in Italian.^[4][11]
• About 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses it for making a hole in the ground.^[2]
• Before 1537 – Scavo “hollow” in Vannoccio Biringuccio.^[2]
• 1550 – Cosimo Bartoli uses scavare for making something hollow.^[2]
• Before 1712 – Lorenzo Magalotti uses it for investigating in depth.^[2]
• 1803 – Scavo names an archaeological excavation.^[2]
• 1922 – Macchina scavatrice “excavator” appears in the Zingarelli dictionary.^[2]
• 1940 – The sense “to bring to light” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dig: to remove earth from the ground, or to make a hole, pit, well or tunnel that way.^[4][13][11]
2. Of water and other natural agents, to erode, to wear a hollow into: Il torrente ha scavato una gola profonda.^[4][13]
3. To hollow out an object by taking material away.^[4][11][14]
4. (tailoring) To cut a neckline or armhole deeper and wider.^[4][11][14]
5. (figurative) Of illness or grief, to make the face gaunt.^[4][13]
6. To dig up, to excavate: to bring buried things to light, especially in archaeology.^[4][14]
7. (figurative) To dig up old memories; to come up with ideas or stories.^[4][11][9]
8. (figurative) To investigate in depth.^[4][11][9]

Word family

• scavo
• scavatore
• scavatrice
• scavatura
• scavino
• scavamento
• riscavare
• scavacchiare

Related words

• cavare
• cava
• escavare
• escavatore
• cavo
• Latin excavō

Usage notes

Scavarsi la fossa (con le proprie mani), to dig one's own grave, is to cause one's own ruin.^[13][11][14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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, 901
7. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 1249
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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
14. ^ 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)