tronco

Forms

tronco m (plural tronchi); as an adjective, feminine tronca, masculine plural tronchi, feminine plural tronche^[1] Ariosto has the old form Old Italian trunco.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin truncus (“maimed, lopped; trunk”).^[2][4][5][1] DELI and Nocentini give the adjective and the noun separate headings, but both come from the Latin word: the noun is probably the Latin adjective used as a noun, first for a tree stripped of its branches.^[2][4][6][7] The noun is the same as French tronc, Occitan tronc, Catalan tronc, Spanish tronco and Portuguese tronco, and it passed into Friulian as tronk.^[4][8] The verb troncare comes from it rather than the other way round, since truncō appears only in imperial Latin, almost always as the participle.^[2]

The origin of the Latin word is very uncertain.^[2][3] Nocentini puts it in the family of terō (“to rub, wear away”), through a variant also seen in Ancient Greek τρύω (trúō) and τρύχω (trúkhō, “to wear out”).^[4] DEI compares it with mancus (“maimed”), and Devoto sees it as a cross of that word with trux (“fierce”).^[9][10] De Vaan takes the adjective as the oldest form, perhaps one of the adjectives in -cus for bodily defects.^[11] Wiktionary mentions a possible root Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to cut”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Commedia (1300–1313), for something cut off or lopped, and figuratively for something broken off unfinished.^[2][4] Dante shows Bertran de Born holding ’l capo tronco by the hair (“the severed head”).^[12] The noun is in Dante too: when he breaks a twig, the trunk of the thorn bush cries out, Perché mi schiante? (“Why do you tear me?”).^[3]

Semantic evolution

DELI dates the noun “trunk of a tree” to the Italian Crescenzi of about 1350, where troncone also means the stump left in the ground.^[2] Ariosto in 1516 is the first to use it for the human torso.^[2] In 1564 Cosimo Bartoli used it in geometry for the frustum of a cone or pyramid, and by 1879 it meant a stretch of road or railway.^[2][9]

The adjective took a grammatical sense: before 1601 Caporali spoke of sillabe tronche, words cut short at the end.^[2] Firenzuola used it for “broken with tiredness” (before 1543), and by 1891 it described a voice broken by anguish or anger.^[2] The phrase in tronco means “cut off midway”, as in licenziare in tronco, to dismiss on the spot.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses tronco for “cut off” and for the trunk of a bush.^[2][3]
• c. 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses it for the trunk of a tree.^[2]
• 1516 – Ariosto uses it for the human torso.^[2]
• Before 1543 – Firenzuola uses the adjective for “worn out”.^[2]
• 1564 – Cosimo Bartoli uses it in geometry.^[2]
• Before 1601 – Caporali uses it of words cut short.^[2]
• 1879 – It is recorded for a stretch of road or railway.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The trunk of a tree or shrub, from which the branches grow: Hanno segato il tronco del vecchio pino.^[5][6][12]
2. (figurative, uncommon) Stock, lineage.^[5][6]
3. (architecture) The shaft of a column.^[6][5]
4. (anatomy) The torso: the part of the body made up of chest, abdomen and pelvis.^[5][6][12]
5. A statue of a torso, especially a damaged one.^[5][6]
6. (anatomy) The main stem of a nerve or blood vessel before it branches: tronco cerebrale, the brainstem.^[5]
7. The larger remaining part of a broken object.^[5][12]
8. A stretch of road, railway or canal.^[5][12]
9. (geometry) A frustum: tronco di cono, tronco di piramide.^[6][5]

Adjective

1. Cut off, lopped, truncated: un pilastro tronco.^[5][6][12]
2. (geometry) Of a cone or pyramid, with the top cut off by a plane parallel to the base.^[5][6]
3. (figurative) Interrupted, incomplete; of words or a voice, broken by emotion.^[5][15]
4. (figurative, uncommon) Worn out, exhausted.^[5][6]
5. (linguistics) Of a word, stressed on the last syllable (oxytone), or having lost its final vowel or syllable; of a verse, ending in such a word.^[5][12]

Word family

• troncare
• troncone
• tronchetto
• troncamente
• troncamento

Related words

• Latin truncus
• French tronc

Usage notes

In tronco means “abruptly, unfinished”: lasciare un lavoro in tronco is to leave it half done, and a licenziamento in tronco is a dismissal without notice.^[14][12][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3915
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
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. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1018
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli