versoio

Forms

versoio m (plural versoi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Venetian versor, the northern dialect word, adapted to the Tuscan ending -oio.^[2][3][4] The dialect word continues Vulgar Latin *versorium, formed on Latin versus, the past participle of vertō (“to turn”), with the soil understood as what is turned.^[5][6][3][7] DELI calls the word learned: the oldest record has the Latin form, while the popular form was, as it still is, the dialect one.^[5]

The word lives on in the dialects of the Veneto, Verona and Padua, from which it reached Friuli as Friulian versor.^[5][8] The French cognate is versoir.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in the Veronese Riddle (Indovinello veronese) of the 8th or 9th century, as the part of the plough that turns the cut soil.^[5][6][2] G. Presa showed in 1957 that translating it simply as “plough” is too vague.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The modern word names the part of the plough behind the share that lifts and turns over the slice of soil cut by the coltro and the vomere, usually a curved plate of steel.^[7][3][9] Milanese periodicals of 1847 have an adapted form versatoio.^[3]

Timeline

• 8th–9th century – The Veronese Riddle uses the word for the mouldboard.^[5][6]
• 1847 – The adapted form versatoio appears in the Milanese press.^[3]
• 1957 – G. Presa studies the word's meaning in the Riddle.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (agriculture) The mouldboard of a plough: the curved part that turns over the slice of soil cut by the ploughshare (vomere); also called orecchio.^[2][7][4][1]

Related words

• vertere
• versare
• French versoir
• Latin verto

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
4. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli