topo

Forms

topo m (plural topi, feminine topa, diminutive topìno or topolìno, (less common) topétto or topettìno, augmentative topóne or topolóne, pejorative topàccio)^[1] An old form is Old Italian toppo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin talpus, a variant of talpa (“mole”), which came to mean “mouse” in some Romance dialects, above all in Italy and France.^[3][4][2] Talpus is recorded in glosses and in Fredegar, and talpa itself was at first masculine.^[5][4][6] The word changed both gender and meaning because the mole and the mouse were confused.^[4][1]

The vowel shows a northern dialect form *taupo, with ⟨al⟩ turned into ⟨au⟩.^[7][6][8][9] Wiktionary puts the change in pre-literary Tuscan: /l/ became /u̯/, and the resulting /au̯/ gave /ɔ/, as in Latin aurum (“gold”) > oro.^[1][10] The new word won over mūs (“mouse”) together with sōrex, the source of sorcio.^[5][2][11]

The Latin word kept the sense “mole” in French taupe, Catalan taup and Spanish topo, while the sense “mouse” is also found in southern Sardinian toppi.^[12] Talpa is recorded from Varro on and has no known etymology.^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Novellino, a Florentine text of the late 13th century, in the sense “mouse”.^[3][14] There a mouse comes in at a small window, drawn by the smell.^[15]

Semantic evolution

Dante recalls the fable of the frog and the mouse, and Boccaccio describes a painted battle of mice and cats.^[15] Derivatives appear early: topolino in Arrighetto (1304–1313), topaia, a mouse nest, before 1597, and by 1612 a squalid old house.^[3] Toporagno (1561), the shrew, is a calque of Latin mus araneus.^[3][4]

Figurative uses compare people to mice: topo d'albergo and topo d'appartamento for a thief who works in hotels or flats, and topo di biblioteca for a bookworm.^[6][16] The word also names a grey colour, grigio topo.^[17][9] Topolino became the popular name of the small Fiat car from 1939.^[3][4] In computing the word has been used, rarely, for the mouse, as a semantic loan from English.^[1][9]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Novellino has topo “mouse”.^[3][14]
• 1304–1313 – Arrighetto uses the diminutive topolino.^[3]
• 1561 – Toporagno “shrew” is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1597 – G. Soderini uses topaia.^[3]
• 1813 – Stratico records topo, a small boat of Chioggia.^[18]
• 1824 – Topo muschiato, the muskrat, is recorded.^[4]
• 1939 – Topolino is used for the Fiat utility car.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. mouse, rat: a small rodent with a long scaly tail and pointed snout, especially the house mouse (Mus musculus): un topo in cantina.^[17][8][6]
2. (zoology) The common name of the species of the family Muridae.^[17][19]
3. (figurative) A thief (in topo d'albergo, topo d'appartamento, topo d'auto), or a bookworm (in topo di biblioteca).^[6][16][1]
4. A light shade of grey.^[17][9]
5. A glazier's iron tool, the grisatoio.^[17][9][16]
6. (nautical) A flat-bottomed boat with a raised bow, used in the Venetian lagoon.^[17][8][6]
7. (computing, rare) A computer mouse.^[1][9]

Adjective

1. Mouse-grey (invariable, after a noun): un cappotto grigio topo.^[6][9][17]

Word family

• topolino
• topaia
• toporagno
• topicida
• topino
• topesco
• topa
• topaccio

Related words

• ratto
• talpa
• sorcio
• French taupe

Usage notes

The feminine is topa.^[1][6] Fare la fine del topo means to be trapped with no way out.^[6][16] The Venetian boat is treated as a separate word by Devoto–Oli and Treccani, probably a figurative use of the animal's name from the pointed bow, while others connect it with toppo, a boat cut from a log.^[8][19][2] The GDLI and DEI cite a Medieval Latin topa “broad ship without a keel” from 1348.^[2][18] Gioberti used a learned topo, from Ancient Greek τόπος (tópos, “place”), for the heavens as an ideal space.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3822
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
18. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3823
19. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)