scure

Forms

scure f (plural scuri)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian secure, Old Italian scura, Old Italian segure, Old Italian sicura and Old Italian scurre.^[2][1] The literary secure is still used.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin secūris (“axe”), from the accusative ⟨secūrem⟩, with the loss of the unstressed vowel before the stress.^[6][7][2][1] Devoto suggests the shortening helped keep it apart from sēcūrus (“safe”), the source of sicuro.^[8] The same word is Spanish segur, Portuguese segure, Sardinian segur (Campidanese) and Dalmatian seor.^[7][9]

Latin secūris is derived from secō (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”); de Vaan reconstructs the verb as *sekh₁-ie/o- (“to cut off”).^[10][1][6] Its exact match is Proto-Slavic *sekyra (“axe”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the plural secure in Giamboni, before 1292: Egli fece notare le secure del ferro per lo fiume Giordano “he made the iron axes float on the river Jordan”.^[6][2] The form scure first appears in Dante (1304–1308), in the Convivio, where Aeneas takes up the axe to help cut the wood for the pyre of Misenus.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Old texts have scura in Cavalca and segur in the Italian Gregory the Great, and the word was sometimes invariable.^[2] Biblical translations kept secure: già è posta la secure alla radice degli alberi “the axe is already laid to the root of the trees”.^[11] Boccaccio uses the axe as an emblem of justice, of a man who killed his sons, partisans of Tarquin, con scure giusta “with a just axe”.^[12]

Beside the tool the word named a battle-axe and the headsman's axe.^[3][4] Its figurative modern uses are a sanction, as in la scure della legge, and a drastic cut in spending.^[13][5] Latin secūris was borrowed into Berber and the Arabic of the Maghreb.^[9]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Giamboni uses the plural secure.^[6][13]
• Before 1294 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[14]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses scure in the Convivio.^[6][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An axe larger than the hatchet, with a long wooden handle held in both hands, for felling trees and splitting wood: Il boscaiolo affilò la scure prima di entrare nel bosco.^[13][3][4]
2. (historical) A battle-axe; also the axe used to behead the condemned.^[3][4][12]
3. (figurative) A drastic cut in spending imposed by a government or an organisation.^[13][3][14]
4. (figurative) A penalty or sanction.^[13][12]

Related words

• accetta
• secare
• segare
• Latin secūris

Usage notes

Scure d'arme is a battle-axe, also called azza;^[5][14][13] colpo di scure is a decisive blow, and darsi la scure sui piedi, more often said with zappa, is to harm oneself.^[5][14][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli