verruca

Forms

verruca f (plural verruche)^[1] The old forms Old Italian veruca and verruga are recorded.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin verrūca (“hillock; wart”), first “height” and then specialised as “growth on the skin”.^[2][4][5][1] The word is pan-Romance except in Romanian: French verrue, Occitan verruga, Catalan verruga, Spanish verruga, Portuguese verruga and Campidanese berruga.^[4][6][7]

In Latin the ⟨-rr-⟩ comes from the assimilation of ⟨-rs-⟩.^[4] De Vaan derives the word from Proto-Indo-European *u̯(e/o)rs-u- (“height, top”), with Lithuanian viršùs (“top”), Old Church Slavonic врьхъ (vrĭxŭ, “top”) and Old Irish ferr (“better”); the suffix ⟨-ūca⟩ may have been added to a stem in ⟨-u-⟩.^[8][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Zingarelli date the word to before 1320.^[5][9] DELI's first record is the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, about 1350, in the sense of a rounded horny growth on the skin.^[2] Crescenzi, after Dioscorides, says that willow ash drunk or applied with vinegar cures porri and verruche.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The medical sense has been the main one since Old Italian, and the word was often glossed with the popular porro.^[3][10] The older Latin sense of a height lived on in Tuscan place names: Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti noted in 1751–1754 that pointed Alpine peaks were called Verruche or Verrucole, as in the Pisan mountains and the Lunigiana.^[2][11]

Botany took the word for a growth on stems, leaves or the cap of a fungus, recorded with Ottaviano Targioni Tozzetti in 1802–1813.^[2] Zoology names a genus of barnacles Verruca.^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1320 – Verruca is recorded.^[5][9]
• c. 1350 – The Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi uses verruca.^[2]
• 1640 – Verrucoso “covered with warts” appears in Oudin.^[2]
• 1751–1754 – Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti records verruca “small hill”.^[2]
• 1802–1813 – The botanical sense appears in Ottaviano Targioni Tozzetti.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) A wart: a small rounded growth of the skin, usually caused by a virus: Il dermatologo le ha tolto una verruca dal dito.^[5][12][9]
2. (botany) A small soft protuberance on stems or leaves.^[5][12][13]
3. (zoology) A barnacle of the genus Verruca.^[5]

Word family

• verrucoso
• verruculoso

Related words

• porro
• Latin verruca
• French verrue

Usage notes

Kinds of wart are named with fixed phrases: verruca volgare (the common wart, also called porro), verruca plantare (on the sole of the foot), verruca piana or giovanile and verruca seborroica or senile.^[5][12][14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4030
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1049
12. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)