sugo

Forms

sugo m (plural sughi)^[1] Old forms include suco and sugolo, a paste glue (1437, Cennini).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sūcus (“juice”), the popular outcome of the Latin word, beside the learned succo.^[4][5][6][1] The /g/ for Latin /k/ is the northern Italian voicing of a consonant between vowels, so the word came into the standard language from the north.^[5][7][8] The same word is Occitan suc, Catalan suc, Spanish jugo, Portuguese sugo, Romanian suc and Sicilian sucu.^[5][8][1]

De Vaan traces the Latin noun to Proto-Italic *souko- and Proto-Indo-European *souḱo- (“juice”), with the root for “to suck” that is also in sūgō (“to suck”), Latvian sùkt and Old Church Slavonic съсати (sъsati).^[9] The root ends in /k/ in some languages and in /g/ in others;^[9][1] Schrijver took this wavering as a sign of a loan from a substrate language, perhaps itself from Uralic.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records, from before 1320, use sugo for the liquid in fruit and vegetables and the juice pressed out of them; the Italian translation of Crescenzi (about 1350) has it for the juice of quinces.^{[6][5][4][10]}

Semantic evolution

Dante already used suco for the substance or gist of something (before 1321), and Pucci has that sense with sugo (before 1388).^[4] The cooking senses are late: the tasty liquid that meat gives off in cooking is recorded in 1827, and the sauce for pasta or rice in 1873.^[4] In Manzoni's I promessi sposi (1840–1842) sugo also means satisfaction, pleasure, a sense still alive in non c'è sugo.^[4][11]

In rural Tuscany sugo was also liquid manure (18th century), with the derivatives sugaia and sugare.^[3][12] In Emilia the plural sughi is a sweet cream made from grape must and flour.^[13][12] For fruit juice succo is the more common word, but in the cooking senses it cannot replace sugo.^[12]

Timeline

• Before 1320 – Sugo is first recorded.^[6][5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses suco for the substance of something.^[4]
• About 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi has sugo, sugoso and sugosità.^[4]
• Before 1388 – Pucci uses sugo for the gist of something.^[4]
• 1827 – Il cuoco italiano uses it for the juices of cooked meat.^[4]
• 1840–1842 – Manzoni uses it for satisfaction, pleasure.^[4]
• 1873 – Tommaseo–Bellini record it for a pasta sauce.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The juice in fruit and vegetables, and the liquid squeezed out of them; succo.^[6][13][14]
2. The tasty liquid that food, especially meat, gives off in cooking; gravy: Versa un po' di sugo sulla carne.^[6][14][11]
3. A sauce for pasta or rice, especially one made with tomato, oil or butter and herbs: tagliatelle al sugo.^[6][13][14]
4. (regional, Emilia, plural) A creamy dish of grape must thickened with flour.^[6][13]
5. (figurative) The essence, the main point of a speech or story: il sugo della faccenda.^[6][14][11]
6. (figurative, colloquial) Satisfaction, pleasure: Non c'è sugo a giocare con te.^[6][11]
7. Liquid manure.^[6][12]

Word family

• sugoso
• sugosità
• sugare
• sughetto
• sughino
• sugaia

Related words

• succo
• Latin sūcus

Usage notes

Senza sugo means dull, pointless: a story or a person with nothing to it.^[11][15] Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti quote Manzoni's il sugo di tutta la storia, the gist of the whole story.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
3. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3674
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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, p. 432
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 513
11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ a b c d e 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 e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana