scodella

Forms

scodella f (plural scodelle)^[1] Old Italian forms include scudella, scutela, scuella, squela and iscodella.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scutella (“small shallow dish”), a diminutive of scutra (“shallow dish, tray”).^{[4][5][6][7][1]} The /d/ shows the northern voicing of /t/ between vowels.^[5][8] The Latin word had a short /u/, but most Romance forms, among them Old Italian scudella, point to a long /uː/ taken from scūtum (“shield”).^[5][9][10]

The same word is French écuelle, Occitan escudella, Catalan escudella, Spanish escudilla and Portuguese escudela.^[5][11] It passed into Germanic as Old High German scuzzila, modern Schüssel, and as Old English scutel, whence scuttle (“bucket”).^[5]

The origin of scutra is unknown.^[4][5][8] De Vaan allows a link with scūtum, a shield turned over serving as a dish, but finds the suffix unusual and thinks the word may be a loan.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Monza glossary of the 10th century, where the form is scutela.^[2][5] Medieval Latin scotella is recorded as early as 564, and Italian scudella in a declaration of 1182–1193.^[4][6] The sense was a vessel, usually concave, for holding and eating food or drink.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word for vessels of other kinds and for the amount a bowl holds, and scodella del papa was food handed out by the Pope.^[2] Giamboni writes of the flour “in the poor woman's bowl” (della scodella della povera femina), and Boccaccio's Decameron of a silver bowl.^[3][13]

In Tuscany the word is the deep plate for soup, elsewhere fondina.^[14][4] The verb scodellare “to ladle out” is recorded in 1612, and Fanfani in 1863 adds the figurative “to give birth easily”, “to copy a passage wholesale” and “to speak out”.^[4] The diminutive scodellino (1353, Boccaccio) later named the priming pan of muzzle-loading guns (1735) and the small cup for a painter's thinner.^[4] In architecture a scodella is a hollow ceramic disc set into brick walls, a decoration of Arab origin taken up in Romanesque building.^[6][15]

Timeline

• 564 – Medieval Latin scotella is recorded.^[4]
• 10th century – Scutela appears in the Monza glossary.^[2][5]
• 1182–1193 – Scudella appears in a declaration.^[4][6]
• 1287 – Scodelle appears in a register of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence.^[4]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses scodellino.^[4]
• 1612 – Scodellare is recorded in Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.^[4]
• 1735 – The Crusca records scodellino for the priming pan of a firearm.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deep plate, especially for soup; a soup plate.^[6][16][17]
2. A bowl without a handle, fairly large: una scodella di caffellatte.^[6][16][18]
3. A bowlful: Ha finito due scodelle di riso.^[6][16][19]
4. (geology) A bowl-shaped hollow in rock or ground: dolina a scodella, a sinkhole wider than it is deep.^[16][18][15]
5. (architecture) A hollow ceramic disc set into a brick wall as decoration.^[6][15]
6. (geometry) scodella di Galileo: the solid left when a hemisphere is removed from the cylinder around it.^[15]

Word family

• scodellare
• scodellino
• scodelletta
• scodellina

Related words

• scudo
• Latin scutella
• French écuelle

Usage notes

Fare scodella con le mani is to hold the hands together with the palms up, as a cup.^[6][16][15] Fare le scodelle is to ladle food from the pot into the plates.^[19][14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 18, 103
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 895
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ 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
17. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
19. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana