Etymologically
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testa

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Pronunciation

Forms

testa f (plural teste, diminutive testìna or testolìna or (uncommon, usually of butchered animals) testicciòla or (literary, uncommon, usually of butchered animals) testicciuòla, augmentative testóna or (with specialized meanings) testóne m, pejorative testàccia, derogatory testùccia)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin testa (“earthenware pot; tile; shell”), a word that in Late Latin came to mean the skull and then the head.[2][3][4][1] In much of the Romance area the new word took the place of the popular outcomes of the older caput, which Italian keeps as capo.[2][5] It is shared with French tête (older Old French teste), Occitan testa, Catalan testa, Portuguese testa, Sardinian testa and Romanian țeastă (“skull”).[3][5]

The change of meaning is often explained as a joke, the skull being likened to a pot.[2][6] DELI thinks it more likely that the shift was at first innocent and technical, in the language of physicians, from “shell” to “brain case”, as with Ancient Greek κόγχος (kónkhos, “shell; skull”), Sardinian conca and southern Italian coccia.[2][3] Another view, recalled by DEI, links it to the barbarians' custom of drinking from skulls, citing the parallel of German Kopf (“head”), borrowed from cuppa (“cup”).[7][3]

The Latin word itself has no sure cognates.[3][8] De Vaan rejects a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *teḱ- (“to build”) on grounds of meaning and thinks it probably a loanword, as words for vessels often are.[9][1] From the same Latin noun come teschio, testuggine and testaceo.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to 1295.[4] GDLI quotes Guittone d'Arezzo, who died in 1294: “Ben li occhi aprimo, non quelli de la testa ma de la mente” (let us open our eyes, not those of the head but those of the mind).[10] DELI's first record of the anatomical sense is in Dante (1300–1313), and the top of the skull covered with hair follows in the Purgatorio (1313–1319).[2]

Semantic evolution

By the mid-14th century Matteo Villani uses testa for intelligence and for a single person in counting (“uno per testa d'uomo”, one per man).[2] Machiavelli (1514–1520) uses it for the front of a column of troops.[2] Later senses follow the shape of the head: the thick end of a long object (1607), a head in sculpture or painting (1939–1940), a horse's head as a margin in racing (1891), first place in a competition (1965) and the cylinder head of an engine (1961).[2]

The phrases testa calda and testa d'uovo are calques of English hot-head and egghead.[2][3] The testone, a silver coin struck in Milan from the 15th century with an unusually large head of the ruler, is recorded in 1542, and in slang the word later meant a million lire.[2][3] Testardo “stubborn” is in Oudin's dictionary of 1640, though D'Alberti still did not record it in 1805.[2]

The old sense “earthen pot” is found in 14th-century translations and lives on in southern dialects for a flower pot.[11][5] Tommaseo–Bellini noted that in 19th-century Tuscan use testa was said especially of large animals, and capo of pigs, fowl and fish as food.[12]

Timeline

  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo writes of “the eyes of the head”.[10]
  • 1295 – GRADIT's date of first record.[4]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses testa for the head of people and animals.[2]
  • Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses testa for intelligence and for a person.[2]
  • 1514–1520 – Machiavelli uses testa for the front of a column.[2]
  • 1542 – The coin testone is recorded.[2]
  • 1640 – Testardo appears in Oudin.[2]
  • 1891 – Testa as a margin in horse racing.[2]
  • 1965 – Testa for first place in a race.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The head of a person or animal: Il gatto ha infilato la testa nella scatola.[4][6][13]
  2. The top of the head covered with hair; the hair itself: Aveva la testa piena di riccioli.[4][6]
  3. (figurative) The mind, intelligence, reason; attention: Oggi non ho la testa per studiare.[4][6][13]
  4. A person, counted as one: Abbiamo pagato venti euro a testa.[2][4][14]
  5. Life, in phrases about losing or saving it, originally alluding to beheading: rischiare la testa.[6]
  6. A head in sculpture or painting; the side of a coin with a head on it, the obverse: testa o croce “heads or tails”.[4][1]
  7. The front or top end of something: the head of a nail, of a column or procession, the front of a train; first place in a race or ranking: essere in testa.[2][4][1]
  8. (mechanics) The cylinder head of an internal combustion engine.[2]
  9. (football) A header, in di testa: Ha segnato di testa all’ultimo minuto.[13][14]

Word family

  • testata
  • testiera
  • testardo
  • testardaggine
  • intestardirsi
  • testina
  • testolina
  • testone
  • testacoda
  • testatico
  • attestarsi
  • intestare
  • intestazione

Usage notes

Common phrases include mal di testa “headache”, a testa alta “with head held high”, dare alla testa “to go to one's head”, testa a testa “neck and neck” and fuori di testa “crazy”.[4][14][1] A botanical testa “seed coat”, recorded from 1961, is a separate learned word, from the Latin textus, past participle of texere “to weave”.[4][15] An old testa “earthenware pot” is the Latin word in its first sense.[11][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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 f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3772
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 443
  9. ^ 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, p. 20, 987
  11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3774
  12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 995