uscio

Forms

uscio m (plural usci m or (archaic) uscia /uscie f)^[1] An old form is Old Italian uschio.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin ūstium (“door”), a Late Latin variant, recorded in the 5th century in Marcellus Empiricus, of Latin ostium (“door; entrance; river mouth”).^[3][4][5][6] Battisti and Alessio and the Zingarelli dictionary call ⟨ūstium⟩ a dialect form,^[6][7] and Prati dates it to the 6th century.^[8] The learned ostio is a doublet taken directly from the classical word.^[1][4]

The word runs through the Romance languages: French huis (now obsolete), Occitan uis, Friulian us, Romansh üs, and Romanian ușă, which continues the neuter plural ⟨ūstia⟩.^[4][9] In Latin, ⟨ostium⟩ belongs with Latin ōs (“mouth”).^[4][5][10] Its first sense was “mouth, opening”, of which “river mouth” and “door” are extensions; the name of Ostia, the port of Rome, keeps the older sense.^[3][4] Nocentini compares Lithuanian uostas (“river mouth, harbour”) and Russian у́стье (ústʹje, “river mouth”),^[4] and the OLD adds Sanskrit ⟨óṣṭha-⟩ “lips”.^[10] That noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃eh₁-os (“mouth”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Zingarelli dictionary dates the word to 1268.^[7] DELI cites the Novellino, of the end of the 13th century, and the old feminine plural uscia, recorded in 1288–1290.^[3] Brunetto Latini's Rettorica already lists l'uscia e camere among the parts a builder lays out in a house.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian uscio was the ordinary word for a door: Dante hears the door at the foot of the tower being shut (chiavar l'uscio di sotto).^[2] Tommaseo described it as less dignified than porta: one says uscio for a room or a house, porta for a city, church or palace.^[12] In the 19th century it was considered a word in decline.^[3]

Today it is common mainly in Tuscany, where it means a modest door, and it survives elsewhere in idioms in which porta cannot replace it: tra l'uscio e il muro “in a tight corner”, a uscio e bottega “with home and shop next door”, infilare l'uscio “to slip away”.^[13][14][7] Petrarch used it figuratively for a passage, calling the eyes the “door and outlet” (uscio e varco) of tears.^[5][7]

Timeline

• 1268 – First record of uscio.^[7]
• 1288–1290 – The old plural uscia is recorded.^[3]
• End of the 13th century – The Novellino uses uscio and usciere “doorkeeper”.^[3]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses the plural uscia.^[3]
• 1854 – Usciere is recorded for a clerk who directs visitors in a public office.^[3]
• 1855 – Uscio is listed as a word in decline.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Door (porta), especially a small or modest one, the word being chiefly Tuscan; the doorway or the door itself: l'uscio di casa;^[5][13][14] uscio a vetri, glass door.^[5][13][14]
2. (figurative) In set phrases: tra l'uscio e il muro, in a tight corner;^[13][14][7] a uscio e bottega, very close by;^[13][14][7] infilare or prendere l'uscio, to slip away;^[13][14][7] mettere qualcuno all'uscio, to throw someone out.^[13][14][7]
3. (figurative, literary) An opening or passage.^[5][13]

Word family

• usciere
• usciolo
• usciata
• usciale

Related words

• porta
• ostio
• Latin ostium

Usage notes

The plural is usci;^[7][12] Old Italian also had the feminine plurals uscia and uscie.^[7][12] The proverb il peggio passo è quello dell'uscio says that the hardest step is the first one, or the moment of parting.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 586
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3963
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d e f g h Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)