scuotere

Forms

scuotere (first-person singular present scuòto, first-person singular past historic scòssi, past participle scòsso, auxiliary avére)^[1] The popular and literary form is scotere, without the diphthong, and in unstressed syllables the forms without it (scotiamo) alternate with those with it.^[2][3] Old Italian has many forms, among them scuotare in the first record of GRADIT, before 1313.^[4][5] Old Venetian has scoder and Chioggia scuoder in 1387.^[6][7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *exquotere, a spoken form of Latin excutere (“to shake out, throw off”).^[8][9][4][1] The classical verb was formed from ex- and quatere (“to shake”), and its compound stem was remade on the vowel of the simple verb, so that DELI calls the result a false recomposition.^[8][9][10] DEI and Prati point to the same change in percuotere from percutere.^[6][7]

Romanian scoate “take out” needs the same remodelled form.^[6][1] Without the change the Latin verb gave Old French escourre, Old Occitan escoire “to thresh”, Old Spanish escudir, Galician escuder and Vegliote skutro.^[11][9][6] The sense “to thresh” is found especially in eastern France, Switzerland and the Grisons.^[11]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kwat-i- for the Latin verb and compares Old High German scutten (“to shake”), Old Saxon skuddian and perhaps Lithuanian kutėti.^[12][9] The ablaut of such a root would be awkward, so he thinks the verb may be of non-Indo-European origin.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Venetian pact with Aleppo of 1225.^[5] DELI's first dated use is in the statute of the Sienese wool guild of 1298–1309, with the sense “to beat violently so that it moves in several directions”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the reflexive both for a sudden shaking (the giant Ephialtes a scuotersi fu presto) and for being troubled or moved.^[8][13] Old Italian also used the verb for beating someone, for sieving and inspecting, and, as a legal term, for collecting money that was owed.^[5] This last sense survives in riscuotere and in the Venetian and Lombard dialects;^[7][6] Prati traces it to the phrase excutere denarium de manu in 10th-century documents.^[7][6] In the central dialects the verb is a farming word: at Velletri scote means to dig with a spade.^[6]

The modern sense “to stir up, excite” is recorded in a Milanese print of 1824.^[8] The derivatives followed later: scossone “a hard jolt” in 1913 and scuotipaglia, the straw shaker of a threshing machine, in 1960.^[9]

Timeline

• 1225 – A Venetian pact with Aleppo gives the first record.^[5]
• 1298–1309 – The statute of the Sienese wool guild uses it for “shake violently”.^[8]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses scuotersi for “shake oneself” and “be troubled”.^[8]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses scotimento.^[8]
• 1387 – Scuoder is recorded at Chioggia.^[6]
• 1729 – Scuotimento is recorded in the 4th Crusca dictionary.^[8]
• 1824 – A Milanese print uses it for “stir up, excite”.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shake; to move something hard back and forth: il terremoto ha scosso tutta la valle.^[4][2][1]
2. To shake someone by the shoulders or arms, to wake or revive them; figuratively, to rouse someone from apathy.^[4][2][3]
3. (figurative) To upset, to move deeply: quella lettera l'ha scossa molto.^[4][10][1]
4. To shake off, to make something fall by shaking: scuotere le briciole dal tovagliolo; figuratively, to throw off oppression (scuotere il giogo).^[4][14][1]
5. (literary) To strip, to deprive.^[4][1]
6. (reflexive, scuotersi) To start, to jump; to rouse oneself; to be troubled.^[14][3][10]

Word family

• scuotitoio
• scuotitore
• scuotimento
• scosso
• scossa
• scossone
• scuotipaglia
• riscuotere
• scuotitrice
• scuotitura

Related words

• percuotere
• escutere
• Latin quatiō

Usage notes

Scuotere il capo or la testa is to shake one's head in doubt or refusal, and scuotere le spalle to shrug in indifference.^[14][3][2] The diphthong uo belongs only in stressed syllables by the traditional rule, but scuotiamo and similar forms now prevail over scotiamo.^[3][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3431
7. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 902
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b 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 c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli