setaccio

Forms

setaccio m (plural setacci)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian sedazo, Old Italian sedaço, Old Italian sëazo and Old Italian setaççio, mostly northern, and the Tuscan staccio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin saetācium (“hair sieve”), a derivative of saeta (“bristle, horsehair”).^[4][5][1][6] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli call the Latin word Late Latin, recorded in the glosses;^{[4][5][7][8][2]} DELI, GRADIT and the TLIO call it Medieval Latin, and DELI notes the verb setaciāre in a medical antidotary of the 9th–10th century.^{[4][5][7][8][2]} The everyday Tuscan form is the shorter staccio.^[9][6][10]

The word is pan-Romance: French sas, Occitan sedatz, Catalan sedas, Spanish cedazo and Portuguese sedaço, with Sardinian sedattu in Logudorese and Romansh sedad in Sursilvan.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Florentine translation of the Antidotarium Nicolai, from the end of the 13th century, and in documents from Prato (1296–1305): a tool with a mesh base that separates the finest particles of a powder from the coarser ones.^[2] DELI dates the word to a 14th-century cookery book.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The sieve was made of silk, cloth, horsehair or metal wire and was used above all to part flour from bran.^[7][3] Old Italian already had phrases from it: crivellare con buon setaccio “to examine closely”, and essere fatto a setaccio, of uncertain meaning, perhaps “to be illegitimate” or “to be full of faults”.^[2]

The verb setacciare is recorded before 1347 in Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, and its figurative sense “to examine carefully” in 1960.^[7] The modern phrase passare al setaccio means to examine minutely, and also, of the police, to search an area thoroughly.^[5][8] In chemistry a setaccio molecolare is a microporous material that separates molecules by size and shape.^[5]

Timeline

• 9th–10th century – Medieval Latin setaciare “to sift” appears in an Antidotarium.^[7]
• Late 13th century – Setaccio is first recorded in the Florentine Antidotarium Nicolai.^[2]
• 1296–1305 – Documents from Prato use the word.^[2]
• Before 1347 – Francesco Balducci Pegolotti uses setacciare.^[7]
• 1960 – Setacciare “to examine carefully” and setacciatura are recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sieve: a mesh stretched on a rigid frame, used to separate the finer parts of a powder or granular substance from the coarser ones: setacciare lo zucchero a velo con un setaccio fine.^{[8][5][11][1]}
2. A child's toy sieve, used especially on the beach.^[8]
3. (figurative) In passare al setaccio: to examine something very closely; of the police, to search an area thoroughly.^[8][5]
4. (technical) A sieve used for the granulometric analysis of powders and granular materials, especially in mining.^[8][5]
5. (chemistry) In setaccio molecolare: a microporous material, such as a zeolite, that separates molecules of different size and shape.^[5][8]

Word family

• setacciare
• setacciatura
• setacciata
• setacciatore

Related words

• staccio
• seta
• setola
• Latin saeta

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 18, 806
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3468
11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse