trozza

Forms

trozza f (plural trozze)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French troche, a dialect variant of torche (“twisted thing”), recorded in the 13th century.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The Old French base also gave torcia.^[3][6]

The forms Medieval Latin troccia (spelled ⟨troctia⟩ at Amalfi in 1274) and Ligurian trosa (spelled ⟨troça⟩ in 1268) are recorded.^[7][5] The same word is Spanish troza.^[7][5]

Meyer-Lübke saw it instead as Catalan trossa (“tackle”), from Vulgar Latin *tortiāre (“to twist”), and Wiktionary derives it from Late Latin trossa, from Vulgar Latin *torsus (“something twisted”), a variant of Latin tortus (“twisted”).^[8][1] That adjective is the past participle of torqueō (“to twist”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the word from 1602 and GRADIT from 1607;^[3][2][7] DEI puts it in the 16th century.^[3][2][7] The sense was nautical from the start: a ring that holds a yard to the mast without hindering its movement.^[7][10]

Semantic evolution

Crescenzio explains that the anchi keep the yard joined to the mast by means of the trozze, and an old nautical dictionary describes them as the wooden balls and ropes that hold the yard to the mast.^[5][11] This older kind, a rope collar threaded with wooden balls, was the trozza a bertocci or a paternostri.^[6][2] Today the word names a metal joint that ties yards, booms and gaffs to their masts while leaving them free to swing.^[12][6]

French took the word as drosse (trosse in the 17th and 18th centuries), for a gun tackle from 1634 and for the parrel itself from 1680.^[10][7] Corsican drozza comes from the French.^[7]

Timeline

• 1268 – Genoese troça is recorded.^[7]
• 1274 – Medieval Latin troctia is recorded at Amalfi.^[7]
• 1602 – First Italian record by Zingarelli's date.^[3]
• 1607 – GRADIT's date for the word.^[2][10]
• 1634 – French drosse is first recorded, for a gun tackle.^[10]
• 1680 – French drosse is recorded in the sense of trozza.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) A parrel: a collar or joint that holds the middle of a yard, or the end of a gaff or boom, to the mast while leaving it free to turn: trozza a bertocci, trozza a paternostri, a parrel of rope threaded with wooden balls.^{[2][12][4][3][6][1]}

Related words

• torcia
• torcere
• French drosse

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3918
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier