succhiare

Forms

succhiare (first-person singular present sùcchio, first-person singular past historic succhiài, past participle succhiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sūculāre, a verb formed from sūcus (“juice, sap”).^[2][3][4][1] Treccani gives the form as *succulāre, from the Latin variant succus.^[5][1] The noun succhio “sucking” is a back-formation from the verb.^[2]

The verb is limited to Italian and the dialects of the south: in the Abruzzo and Apulia it has blended with sorbire (Neapolitan sorchiare), while central and northern Tuscan dialects use ciucciare and the south sucare.^[6][7] Meyer-Lübke doubted the reconstruction and took Catalan xuclar as an independent imitative formation.^[7] Prati thought succiare and suzzare at least partly imitative.^[8]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *souḱ-o- (“juice”).^[9][1] The root for “to suck” appears as *suḱ- and as *sug-, the latter in sūgō (“to suck”) and in Old English sūcan;^[9] Schrijver saw this wavering as the mark of a loan from a substrate language.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Francesco da Barberino, before 1348, in the sense “to draw a liquid into the mouth by sucking with closed lips”;^[2][3] Nocentini dates the verb to the second half of the 13th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “absorb” is recorded before 1597 in Soderini, and Petrocchi gives “to sip calmly” in 1891.^[2] Ariosto writes of a monster that eats the flesh and sucks out the brains and blood (le cervella / succhiate e 'l sangue).^[10] Figurative uses followed: succhiare il sangue “to bleed someone dry, exploit”, and succhiare col latte “to absorb from infancy”.^[11][5][12] In cycling slang succhiare la ruota is to ride in another rider's slipstream.^[4][11][12]

Derivatives include succhio “act of sucking” (before 1406, Buti), succhiatore (1598, Florio), succhione “sucker shoot” (1759) and succhiotto “dummy, pacifier” (1959 or 1963).^[2][3]

Timeline

• Before 1348 – Francesco da Barberino uses succhiare.^[2][4]
• Before 1406 – Succhio is recorded in Francesco da Buti.^[2]
• Before 1597 – Soderini uses the verb for “absorb”.^[2]
• 1598 – Florio records succhiatore.^[2]
• 1891 – Petrocchi gives the sense “sip calmly”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To suck: to draw a liquid into the mouth with the lips closed around its source: Il bambino succhiava il succo dalla cannuccia.^{[4][13][14][1]}
2. To hold something in the mouth and suck it, such as a thumb or a dummy (ciuccio); to suck a sweet until it dissolves.^[4][14][11]
3. Of animals, to take in food by sucking: bees sucking nectar, mosquitoes sucking blood.^[4][13][5]
4. To absorb, of plants or things.^{[4][14][11][1]}
5. (uncommon) To draw down, like a whirlpool; risucchiare.^[4][5]
6. (cycling) Succhiare la ruota: to ride close behind another rider.^[4][11][12]
7. (vulgar, slang) To perform fellatio on.^[1]

Word family

• succhiotto
• succhio
• succhiatore
• succhione
• risucchiare
• risucchio
• succhiamento
• succhiata
• succhiatoio

Related words

• succiare
• succo
• sugo
• suggere
• Latin sūcus

Usage notes

The reflexive succhiarsi is used intensively (succhiarsi il dito, of children) and, figuratively and rarely, for putting up with something tedious.^[11][14] A different succhiare “to bore with a gimlet”, from succhiello, was used from Francesco da Barberino to the 18th century and is now obsolete.^[10][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
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. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3669
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 961
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET