Etymologically
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tazza

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈtat.t͡sa/[1]

Forms

tazza f (plural tazze)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic طَاس (ṭās, “cup, bowl”), which DELI, Devoto–Oli and Treccani quote with the ending ⟨-a⟩.[2][3][4][1] DELI thinks the word reached the whole of western Europe probably from the ports of the Levant, such as Tyre;[2] GRADIT gives the route through Turkish tas.[5] DEI traces the Arabic word further to a Persian word for a basin.[6]

The same word is French tasse (recorded about 1150), Old Occitan tassa, Spanish taza and Portuguese taça, and it also reached Romanian and the Slavic languages.[6][7][8] The Sicilian and Calabrian dialects have Sicilian tassa with a single /s/.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin documents of the papal Curia have tassia from 1318, and Bologna has tassea and tassia in 1334.[2] The Italian word is first recorded in Franco Sacchetti, before 1400, for a small round, low vessel, usually with handles.[2] Nocentini dates it to 1333–1337, and Zingarelli and DIFIT to before 1342.[8][9][10] One of Sacchetti's tales has a silver tazza worth thirty florins (una tazza d'argento di valuta di trenta fiorini).[11]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century a tazza could be a precious worked cup or, under Spanish influence, a crystal drinking vessel, and Vasari uses the word for the marble or stone basin that receives the water of a fountain.[6][2] The literary sense “drinking cup, goblet” is now old.[9][12] The quantity a cup holds is recorded from 1891 (Petrocchi), and the bowl of a flush toilet from 1942, when Migliorini noted it as a Roman use.[2] In engineering the word names each bucket on the chain of a dredger or a noria (1970, Zingarelli).[2]

The diminutive tazzino appears in 1612 (Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger) and tazzina, now chiefly a coffee cup, in 1879 (Tommaseo–Bellini).[2] English took tazza for an ornamental cup on a foot in the 1820s.[10][6] The Romansh word tazza and Cimbrian tatza are borrowed from Italian, while German Tasse is usually traced to French.[1][10]

Timeline

  • 1318 – Medieval Latin tassia appears in documents of the Curia.[2]
  • 1334 – Tassea and tassia are recorded at Bologna.[2]
  • Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses tazza.[2]
  • 1550 – Vasari uses it for a fountain basin.[2]
  • 1612 – The diminutive tazzino is first recorded.[2]
  • 1823 – English tazza is first recorded.[10]
  • 1879 – Tazzina appears in Tommaseo–Bellini.[2]
  • 1942 – The sense “toilet bowl” is recorded as Roman.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cup or mug: a small round vessel, usually with a handle, for drinking or serving liquids: una tazza da tè.[5][3][1]
  2. A cupful: Per la torta servono due tazze di zucchero.[5][3]
  3. (colloquial) The bowl of a flush toilet.[5][4][1]
  4. (engineering) Each of the buckets on the chain of a dredger or a noria.[5][3]
  5. (architecture) A large basin of a fountain, or of the hot bath in Roman baths.[5][3][4]
  6. (literary, dated) A drinking cup, goblet.[5][9][12]

Word family

  • tazzina
  • tazzetta
  • tazzone
  • French tasse
  • Spanish taza

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3735
  7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli