zotico

Forms

zotico (feminine zotica, masculine plural zotici, feminine plural zotiche)^[1] An old form is zòttico.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is obscure, and several sources have been proposed.^[3][4][5] Most dictionaries follow Caix (1878): it is from Late Latin idiōticus (“ignorant, unskilled”), recorded from Tertullian, a transcription of Ancient Greek ἰδιωτικός (idiōtikós, “of a private person; common”), from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own”) (see idiota).^{[3][6][7][8][9][10][11][1]} Meyer-Lübke accepted it, and Devoto–Oli and Gabrielli give it without doubt; the Treccani and Sabatini–Coletti with a “perhaps”.^{[7][9][12][11][5]}

Many scholars have found this unsatisfactory, starting with Alessio: the southern Sicilian zòticu (“rough, intractable”) of Calabria and Sicily cannot come from the Latin word, which would give ⟨j-⟩, so he proposed ζωτικός (zōtikós, “full of life”), from ζάω (záō, “to live”), entering Italy in Byzantine times.^[6][3] Nocentini objects that nobody explains the step from “vital” to “rough”.^[6]

Nocentini himself prefers Latin exōticus (“foreign”), from ἐξωτικός (exōtikós) (see esotico), the foreigner being seen as ignorant of local ways and hard to deal with.^[6] The link is Neapolitan nzòteco (“wild”), whose ⟨nz-⟩ continues Latin ⟨ex-⟩ as in nzamà (“to swarm”) from exāmen (“swarm”);^[6] Italian ⟨z-⟩ would be an adaptation of it, and the word came from the South.^[6] The same source had been put forward by Ménage, by Salvini and by Pieri;^[8][13][7] Diez and Meyer-Lübke objected that Italian ⟨z⟩ does not continue Latin ⟨x⟩.^[8][13][7]

Other proposals: Lurati takes zoticone as a variant of coticone, from cotica, which is found in Aretino.^[3] Corominas and Wartburg connect it with an imitative root meaning “stupid”, as in French sot and Spanish zote, but Nocentini notes that “rough” and “stupid” are different ideas and that Italian has a single ⟨t⟩.^[6] Liebrecht thought of Old High German zota (“tuft of hair”).^[8][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Boccaccio (1348–1353) with the sense “rough, coarse”: egli non è alcun sì forbito ... né sì duro o zotico, che io non ammorbidisca (“no one is so polished ... or so hard and rough that I cannot soften him”).^[3][11][13] GRADIT dates its sense “rough to the touch” to the same text.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the 15th century zotico describes uncultured, ill-mannered people: Frezzi has nymphs incolte, indotte, zotiche e mendici.^[2] The sense “uncultured, uncivilised” is dated 1673 (Segneri), “rough”, of cloth, 1726 (Salvini), and the noun “a boorish person” 1891.^[3] Leopardi writes of being among una gente zotica, vil.^[10][11]

Zoticone, the augmentative, is recorded in 1587, and zotichezza and zoticaggine in the 17th century;^[6][3] DELI notes that the 14th-century examples of both in the old dictionaries are false, one of them forged by Francesco Redi.^[6][3] In the dialects of central Italy the word has specific senses: in Tuscany, soil that is hard to work; in Umbria, dirt on the skin that is hard to remove.^[6]

Timeline

• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio has the first record, “rough, coarse”.^[3][4]
• 1587 – Zoticone is recorded.^[6]
• 1673 – Paolo Segneri uses it for “uncultured, uncivilised”.^[3]
• Before 1676 – Carlo Roberto Dati uses zotichezza.^[3]
• Before 1698 – Francesco Redi uses zoticaggine.^[3]
• 1726 – Anton Maria Salvini uses it of rough cloth.^[3]
• 1891 – The noun “boorish person” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. boorish, uncouth, ill-mannered, of people and of their manners: Ha risposto con un tono zotico.^{[4][9][5][10][11][1]}
2. (uncommon) Rough to the touch, coarse, of cloth.^{[4][9][5][10]}

Noun

1. A boor, lout: an ignorant, ill-mannered person.^{[9][5][11][1]}
2. A peasant.^[1]

Word family

• zoticone
• zoticaggine
• zotichezza
• zoticamente
• inzotichire

Related words

• idiota
• esotico

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 1098
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org