succoso

Forms

succoso (feminine succosa, masculine plural succosi, feminine plural succose)^[1] Old forms include soccoso and sucoso.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sūcōsus (“full of juice”), also spelled succōsus, from sūcus (“juice, sap”) with the suffix -ōsus.^{[3][4][5][1][6]} The double ⟨cc⟩ follows succo.^[7][1] sugoso is the inherited form of the same Latin word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates both senses, “full of juice” and “substantial and concise”, to Segneri in 1673.^[8] Tommaseo–Bellini quotes him on dry wood without una stilla d’umor succoso (“a drop of juicy moisture”), and on an answer that holds come un succoso compendio (“as a pithy summary”) all the reasons for obeying God.^[9] Zingarelli dates the word before 1472.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Latin adjective was used by Columella and Pliny.^[9] Mattioli's Dioscorides calls quinces juicier and fleshier than other pears, and Carducci writes of the juicy green of the vine.^[2] The figurative sense describes writing or speech that sums up the essentials concisely and pleasantly, and the adverb succosamente has only this sense.^[11]

Timeline

• Before 1472 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[10]
• 1673 – Segneri uses succoso in both its senses.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. juicy, full of juice: Quest'anno le pesche sono molto succose.^[3][12][11]
2. (figurative) Of writing or speech: pithy, concise in form but rich in content: un saggio breve e succoso.^[3][12][4]

Word family

• succosità
• succosamente

Related words

• succo
• sugoso

Usage notes

Synonyms are sugoso and succulento.^[4][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 487
3. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ 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