tosse

Forms

tosse f (plural tossi, diminutive tossétta or tossettìna or tosserèlla or tosserellìna or (less common) tossicìna, augmentative (Tuscany) tossicóne, pejorative tossàccia)^[1] The old form Old Italian tossa is found in Franco Sacchetti and the Italian Palladius, and Prati notes it still in the mountains.^[2][3] It is also Pisan and Lucchese, Corsican tossa and Neapolitan tossa.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tussis (“cough”), continued through the accusative.^[5][6][7][8] The verb tossire is Latin tussiō (“to cough”).^[5][6]

The word is found in nearly every Romance language: French toux, Occitan tos, Catalan tos, Spanish tos, Portuguese tosse, Sardinian tusciu, Friulian tos and Romanian tuse.^[6][9][10]

Latin tussis has no clear origin, and DELI, DEI, the GDLI and Zingarelli call it unknown or uncertain.^{[5][4][11][8]} Nocentini and Devoto take it as a noun of action Proto-Indo-European *tud-ti-, from Latin tundō (“to beat”), a “beat” of the chest, and the OLD also suggests this, comparing messis beside metō.^[6][12][13] Wiktionary gives *tud-tí-s (“cough”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-.^[1] De Vaan finds the link with tundō possible in meaning but notes that such a form would have given *tūsis; the short vowel and double ⟨ss⟩ may be expressive, or the word may simply imitate the sound.^[14][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the first record to 1292, and Nocentini to the second half of the 13th century.^[8][6] DELI and GRADIT first find it in Dante, before 1321, in the sense of the violent, noisy breath out after a deep breath in, which clears the airways.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense.^[5][7] Beside tosse Old Italian had tossa, which Tommaseo quotes from Sacchetti's line E forte tossa chi avesse tosse (“and let whoever has a cough, cough loudly”).^[3]

Names for whooping cough followed in the 19th century: tosse convulsa in Tommaseo (1838), tosse ferina (1853) and tosse canina (1879), Bolognese tos cagneina in 1853;^[4][6] pertosse itself is recorded from 1859.^[4][6] Diminutives such as tosserella (Redi, 17th century) and the verb tossicchiare “to cough slightly and often” (1860) belong to the same family.^[4][5] A cough can also be put on to draw someone's attention or warn them.^[11][5]

Timeline

• 1292 – First record, according to Zingarelli.^[8]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses tosse.^[5][7]
• 14th century – Franco Sacchetti has the form tossa.^[4]
• 17th century – Tosserella appears in Redi.^[4]
• 1838 – Tosse convulsa “whooping cough” is recorded by Tommaseo.^[4]
• 1859 – Pertosse is recorded.^[6]
• 1860 – Tossicchiare appears in Viani.^[5]
• 1879 – Tosse canina is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cough: a reflex act of breathing, a deep breath in followed by a sudden, noisy breath out, which clears phlegm or foreign matter from the airways.^[7][15][16]
2. The condition of coughing often, as in an illness: Il bambino ha la tosse da una settimana.^[7][15][8]

Word family

• tossicchiare
• pertosse
• tosserella
• tossetta
• tossaccia
• tossicare
• tossicone

Related words

• tossire
• Latin tussis

Usage notes

A dry cough is tosse secca, a productive one tosse grassa;^[7][8][15] colpo di tosse is a single cough.^[7][8][15] Tosse asinina, canina, cavallina and convulsa are everyday names for whooping cough, pertosse.^[8][16][15] The plural is tossi.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1005
3. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3840
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana