sorice

Forms

sorice m (plural sorici)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sōricem (“shrew-mouse”), from the accusative of the Latin word.^[2][1][3][4] The same Latin word, shortened and with a change of declension, gave sorcio, now the usual word.^[5][6] The Romance cognates include Sardinian sórighe and Romanian șoarece, while French souris goes back to a derivative *soricia.^[5] The southern zoccola “sewer rat” comes from a diminutive of the same Latin word.^[5]

The origin of sorex is disputed: de Vaan compares Ancient Greek ὕραξ (húrax, “shrew-mouse”) and takes both to be loans from a common source of the shape ⟨*sVr-Vk-⟩.^[7] Nocentini instead traces the pair to Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to make a sound”), so that the animal was named for its squeak.^[5] DELI calls the Latin word probably pre-Indo-European.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the first record to before 1292, in the sense “mouse”.^[2] The GDLI's earliest quotation is from Giamboni, about people who left their homes because of the many frogs and mice: tante rane e sorici.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old and regional texts have it in many forms, such as sorece, sorico, sorigo and surice.^[4] An Esopo translation explains it as a synonym: Uno topo, overo sorigo (“a mouse, or sorigo”).^[4] Figurative uses followed: a poor result after great expectations, from Aesop's fable of the mountain that gave birth to a mouse, a parasite at court, and dipintoruzzi di code di sorici, worthless daubers.^[4]

In the older language sorice or sorice marino was also a fish, the sea mouse of Pliny's translators, and in Apulia, Calabria and Sicily it is still the name of the pearly razorfish.^[4][3] Tommaseo already marked it as obsolete in general use.^[8] It survives in zoology for the shrew (toporagno), from the Latin genus name Sorex.^[2][4]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Sorice “mouse” is first recorded.^[2]
• Before 1306 – The shortened plural surci appears in Iacopone.^[6]
• Before 1444 – The form sorcio appears in Bernardino da Siena.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic or regional) A mouse, the same as sorcio.^[2][3][4][1]
2. (zoology) A shrew of the genus Sorex, commonly called toporagno: Sorice, the genus itself.^[2][1]
3. (regional) In Calabria and Sicily, the pearly razorfish (Xyrichthys novacula).^[3][2][4]

Word family

• soricello
• soricide
• soriculo

Related words

• sorcio
• sorca
• zoccola
• Latin sorex

Usage notes

Sorice is also an Italian surname, taken from the word as a nickname.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET