scotta

scotta¹ sheet (nautical rope)

Forms

scotta f (plural scotte)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the sail rope is borrowed from Old French escote (modern French écoute), of Frankish origin.^[2][3] Nocentini gives Frankish *skōta and compares Old High German scōz (“apron, skirt”) and Old English scēat (“corner, edge”), whence the English word sheet.^[3]

DEI, GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti take the French word from Old Norse skaut (“lower corner of the sail”) instead, which later came to name the rope fixed there.^[4][5][6][7] Meyer-Lübke started from Dutch schoote and found the Norse word a weaker fit in meaning.^[8] Zaccaria thought the word was spread from the Low Countries.^[9]

Devoto–Oli, Zingarelli, Treccani and Prati bring the Italian word through Spanish escota, which comes from the Old French word.^{[10][11][12][7][3]} Wiktionary gives only the Spanish source.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Ariosto's Orlando furioso of 1516, for the rope that pulls the lower corners of a sail to spread it to the wind.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Zingarelli dates the word to 1532, the year of the final edition of the Orlando furioso.^[11][2] Tommaseo still saw it as the main rope of the sail, slackened or hauled according to the wind, and quoted a nautical manual on the sheets that hold the sails by their corners.^[13] Italian passed the word on to Turkish.^[4]

Timeline

• 1516 – Ariosto uses scotta in the Orlando furioso.^[2][5]
• 1532 – The word stands in the final edition of the poem.^[11][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) A sheet: the running rope fixed to the lower corner of a sail, used to trim it to the wind.^{[5][10][11][1]}

Word family

• scottina
• controscotta

scotta² whey

Forms

scotta f (plural scotte)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the whey is inherited from Vulgar Latin *excocta (“boiled out”), the feminine of Latin excoctus, used as a noun.^[2][3][5][4] This is the past participle of excoquō (“to boil out”), from ex- and coquō (“to cook”).^[2][3][14]

DEI sees a word of northern dialect origin, widespread in the north: Lombard scòcia is Milanese, also for bad milk.^[4] The LEI explains the northern type ⟨scocia⟩ with the regular change of *-ct-* to *-ć-*, and ⟨scotta⟩ as the Tuscan and Italian type.^[15] It sees no need for the reconstructed form, since these words continue the participle itself and are found only in Italo-Romance.^[15] Battaglia calls the Latin source only possible.^[16]

Caix had derived the word from Old High German scotto, which Körting lists, and Zaccaria compares Swiss and Bavarian words for whey.^[17][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the first edition of the Crusca dictionary in 1612, for the whey left in the cauldron after making cheese or ricotta.^[2][5][15] DEI also names Politi and Oudin in the 17th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The third edition of the Crusca defined scotta as the uncurdled whey left over from ricotta, and Battaglia quotes 19th-century writers on milk giving scotta e ricotta.^[16] The word is regional: Devoto–Oli marks it as northern.^[5][10] The LEI derives the verb scottare from this word, first in cooking and then figuratively.^[15]

Timeline

• 1612 – The first Crusca dictionary records scotta “whey”.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional) The whey that does not curdle and stays in the cauldron after cheese or ricotta is made.^[5][10][6]