suocero

Forms

suocero m (plural suoceri, feminine suocera)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian sosero, Old Italian soxero, Old Italian socero and Old Italian suociaro.^[2][3] Socero is still a popular or regional form.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin socerus (“father-in-law”), a rarer variant of socer.^[7][8][9][1] The other Romance languages continue a third variant, socrus, with the feminine socra: Romanian socru, Sardinian sogru, Catalan sogre, Occitan sogre, Spanish suegro, Portuguese sogro and Old French suevre, which French later replaced with beau-père.^[8][10]

Latin socer and socrus (“mother-in-law”) continue the Proto-Indo-European pair *swéḱuros (“father-in-law”) and *swekrúh₂ (“mother-in-law”).^[11][1][8] At first these named only the husband's parents, as seen by the young wife entering his family; the first part is the reflexive *swe-, which could also mean one's own kin, while the second part is explained in several ways.^[8] Most other branches kept only the word for the mother-in-law and made the masculine from it, as in Old High German swigur and German Schwiegervater.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a San Gimignano document of 1235, where the word means the father of one's spouse.^[2][8] DELI cites a Venetian document with sosero from the end of the 13th century, and Dante's suocero from before 1321.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the plural suoceri for both parents of a spouse.^[2] Dante's Inferno has il socero si stenta / in questa fossa (“the father-in-law suffers in this ditch”), and his Purgatorio kings who are padre e suocero of the plague of France.^[3] DELI dates the plural meaning “father-in-law and mother-in-law together” in modern use from 1916.^[7]

The feminine suocera is recorded from before 1347.^[7] The sense “a bossy, quarrelsome woman” followed in 1805.^[7]

Timeline

• 1235 – First record, in a document from San Gimignano.^[2][8]
• End of the 13th century – Venetian sosero appears in a document.^[7]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses suocero and socero.^[7][3]
• Before 1347 – The feminine suocera is recorded.^[7]
• 1916 – The plural suoceri for the parents-in-law together is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. father-in-law: the father of one's husband or wife.^[9][4][5][1]
2. (in the plural) The parents-in-law, father- and mother-in-law together: Domenica pranziamo dai suoceri.^[9][4][6]

Word family

• suocera
• consuocero

Related words

• Latin socer
• Spanish suegro
• Romanian socru

Usage notes

Treccani lists the uncommon diminutive suocerino, the augmentative suocerone and the pejorative suoceraccio.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 521
4. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana