scosso

Forms

scosso (feminine scossa, masculine plural scossi, feminine plural scosse)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian scuotere: its past participle, used as an adjective.^[2][3][4] The participle goes back to Latin excussus, the past participle of excutiō (“to shake out”).^[5][1][6] The Latin verb is formed from ex- (“out of”) and quatiō (“to shake”).^[1][7] De Vaan finds no sure origin for quatiō and thinks it may not be Indo-European.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first records are in Giamboni's Della miseria dell'uomo, before 1292 (Florence), and in Cecco Angiolieri at the end of the 13th century (Siena).^[9] Old Italian used the word for things shaken or trembling, for a person deeply upset, and for someone stripped of something or freed from a burden.^[9] DELI dates the adjective from Giordano da Pisa, before 1311, and the sense “agitated, deeply moved” from the 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Dante has the sense “unloaded”, of travellers set down from the back of Geryon: dalla schiena scossi di Gerion.^[10] In Petrarch's verse a voice is scossa of its former burden, freed of the body.^[6][3] In Old Italian scosso also meant poor, stripped of one's goods.^[9]

The sense “without its load” still lives in rural Tuscan, and in Siena a horse that has thrown its jockey is scosso; at the Palio such a horse can win the race.^[11][1] The figurative “shaken, badly upset” is now the main sense, and finances or a reputation can also be scosse, damaged.^[12][3] The feminine scossa became a noun, “shake, jolt”, already in Dante, and scossa elettrica is recorded before 1808 (Cesarotti).^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Giamboni's Della miseria dell'uomo has the first record.^[9]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses scosso.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the noun scossa.^[5]
• 14th century – The sense “agitated, deeply moved” is recorded.^[5]
• 1483 – Pulci has a scosse “in jolts”.^[5]
• Before 1808 – Cesarotti has scossa elettrica.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. shaken: that has been shaken.^[12][13]
2. (figurative) Deeply upset, shocked: Dopo l'incidente era ancora molto scosso.^{[12][3][4][14][15]}
3. Damaged, weakened: said of finances, health or a reputation.^[12][3][6]
4. (Tuscan) Of a horse, that has thrown its rider; of a pack or draught animal, freed of its load.^{[12][3][4][1]}
5. (literary) Stripped, freed, especially of the body.^[12][3][4]

Word family

• scossa

Related words

• scuotere
• Latin excutio

Usage notes

A separate masculine noun scosso “lap”, of the northern dialects, is recorded from Bonvesin's Milanese poems of the 13th century and survives in Lombard and Emilian; it comes from Lombardic *skauz, related to German Schoß (“lap”).^{[9][11][16][17]} Nervi scossi are frayed nerves.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3421
12. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
17. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves