squartare

Forms

squartare (first-person singular present squàrto, first-person singular past historic squartài, past participle squartàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also had the form Old Italian squatrare, with metathesis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *exquartāre (“to divide into four”), formed with ex- on Latin quārtus (“fourth”).^[4][5][6][1] DELI compares squarciare.^[4][7]

Meyer-Lübke lists the same base for the Modenese verb skarter (“to prune trees”), French écarter (“to set aside”) and Occitan escartar;^[8][9] Körting thinks Italian scartare in the sense “to weed out” may belong here too.^[8][9] The Latin numeral goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kʷeturtos, from *kʷetwóres (“four”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine poet Monte Andrea, in the second half of the 13th century.^[10] DELI's first record, the Fatti di Cesare at the end of the 13th century, has a horse ripped open by a halberd, che la guisarma no lo squartasse.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb meant to cut into quarters or large pieces, of carcasses and of men put to death: Giovanni Villani has an emperor have a traitor squartare a quattro cavalli, torn apart by four horses.^[11] Boccaccio's characters would rather be quartered than do or think a wicked thing.^[11] From the 16th century came squartatore (Berni, before 1535) and squartamento.^[4][2]

Today the verb is used of butchering animals, of the historical punishment, and hyperbolically of a brutal killing.^[6][12][13]

Timeline

• Second half of the 13th century – Monte Andrea uses squartare.^[10]
• Late 13th century – the Fatti di Cesare uses it.^[4]
• Before 1535 – Francesco Berni uses squartatore.^[4]
• 16th century – squartamento appears, in Lasca.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut into quarters or large pieces, especially a slaughtered animal; to butcher: il macellaio squartò il maiale.^[6][12][1]
2. (historical) To put to death by quartering.^[6][12]
3. (hyperbolic) To kill savagely, slaughter.^[6][13][12]

Word family

• squartatore
• squartamento
• squartata
• squartatoio
• squartatura
• squarto

Related words

• quarto
• squarciare
• squadrare
• Latin quārtus

Usage notes

Zingarelli gives squadrare as a literary form of the verb and squatrare as obsolete.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli