scottare

Forms

scottare (first-person singular present scòtto, first-person singular past historic scottài, past participle scottàto, auxiliary (in most meanings) avére or (in the intransitive meaning "to hurt, to pain") èssere)^[1] The old form is Old Italian scotare, with northern Old Italian scotar.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *excoctāre, formed from Latin excoctus (“thoroughly cooked”), the past participle of excoquō (“to cook thoroughly, burn”), which is coquō (“to cook”) with the prefix ex-.^{[4][5][6][7][1]} Devoto and Devoto–Oli call it an intensive of the Latin verb.^[8][9]

The LEI disagrees: the verb is found only in Italo-Romance and is recorded late, so it sees no need for a reconstructed Vulgar Latin verb.^[10] It derives the verb instead from an Italian adjective that continues the Latin participle in popular form, probably first in cooking.^[10] The same participle gave scotta “whey”.^[4]

In old statutes from Lombardy and Piedmont, Old Italian scotare meant “to brand with a red-hot iron”, and Medieval Latin scotare has this sense at Verona in 1276.^[11][4][12] The Latin verb for “to cook” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Venetian Proverbia super natura feminarum of the late 12th century, which says that a man burnt by the flames is a fool if he still longs to play with fire.^[2][14] The sense is “to burn the skin”.^[2][14] DELI dates the text to the 13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already had the three main uses: to burn the skin, to be very hot, and figuratively to hurt someone deeply.^[2] The intransitive “to be scorching” is isolated in a 13th-century translation of the Pamphilus and then appears with Paolo Sarpi before 1626.^[4] Filippo Sassetti, before 1588, uses it for a spicy taste and for an injury to the feelings.^[4][10]

The culinary sense “to cook very briefly, to blanch” is Venetian first (scotàr, in Boerio's dictionary of 1829) and reached Italian by 1839–1841.^[4][10] From Venice also came a scottadito, food eaten hot from the fire, “burning one's fingers”.^[4] In 1891 Petrocchi records the figurative “to be a burning issue”, and Pavese uses scottarsi for being hurt by an experience.^[4] The participle scottante followed the same path, from “burning” (before 1597) to “urgent, delicate” (1891).^[4] In recent Italian, money or goods che scottano are stolen.^[3][15]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Proverbia super natura feminarum has scotato “burnt”.^[2][14]
• 1276 – Medieval Latin scotare “to brand” is recorded at Verona.^[4][11]
• Before 1588 – Filippo Sassetti uses the figurative sense “to sting, to hurt”.^[4]
• Before 1600 – Giordano Bruno has the form scottare.^[4]
• Before 1626 – Paolo Sarpi uses it intransitively, “to be scorching”.^[4]
• Before 1704 – A scottadito is first recorded.^[4]
• 1839–1841 – The culinary sense “to blanch” is recorded in Italian.^[4]
• 1891 – Petrocchi records the sense “to be a burning issue”.^[4]
• Before 1950 – Cesare Pavese uses scottarsi for a bitter experience.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To scald, to burn (skin or a part of the body): L'acqua del tè gli ha scottato le dita.^[3][9][15]
2. (transitive, cooking) To blanch, to boil very briefly: sbollentare.^[3][9][15]
3. (transitive, figurative) To sting, to hurt, to irritate: Quel rimprovero lo ha scottato.^[3][9][16]
4. (intransitive) To be very hot, hot enough to burn: Attento, il manico della pentola scotta.^[3][9][17]
5. (intransitive, figurative) Of a person or a part of the body, to be burning with fever.^[3][9]
6. (intransitive, figurative) Of a matter, to be urgent and delicate, a burning issue: un argomento che scotta.^[3][9][16]
7. (intransitive, figurative) Of money or goods, to be stolen, “hot”.^[3][15][1]
8. (reflexive, as scottarsi) To burn oneself, and figuratively to be hurt by an unpleasant experience.^[17][16][7]

Word family

• scottante
• scottatura
• scottata
• scottadito
• scottamento
• scottato

Related words

• scotto
• scuocere
• cuocere
• scotta
• Latin excoquo

Usage notes

Sentirsi scottare la terra sotto i piedi means to be eager to get away from a place or a dangerous situation.^[16][9] The auxiliary is avere, but essere is used in the intransitive sense “to hurt, to pain”.^[1] Separate, rarer verbs are the nautical scottare “to rig the sheets”, from scotta “sheet”, the archaic scottare “to make someone pay the reckoning”, from scotto, and an archaic nautical scottare “to bail out”, from Spanish.^[14][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 396
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 1377
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3422
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 900
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3423