The Etymology of Italian casamatta

Abstract

In present-day usage, Italian casamatta and its cognates in other European languages (Sp. casamata, Fr. and Eng. casemate, Ger. Kasematte) refer to a type of chamber, vault, or embrasure in the ramparts of a fortress, or to a similar embrasure on ships.1 In some castles, the casemate can assume the shape of a vaulted passage, running along from tower to tower above the inner edge of a moat, and pierced with arrow-loops to the field.2 It is generally acknowledged that Eng. casemate,3 Fr. casemate,4 Ger. Kasematte,5 and Sp. casamata6 are all Renaissance borrowings, directly or indirectly, from Ital. casamatta, which is first attested in Machiavelli (1520).7 Concerning the origin of the Italian word, there is widespread disagreement. Two main etyma have been proposed. (1) Greek khdsmata 'abysses' (sg. khdsma). Earlier etymologists8 thought of this as a learned source, utilized by Rabelais and other Renaissance scholars, because of the spelling chasmates in Rabelais.9 This view has since been abandoned, because Fr. casemate is obviously a borrowing from Italian, together with many other terms of warfare and fortification;l10 but a number of etymologists still favor Gk. khdsmata, supposedly borrowed through the dialect of Ravenna from Byzantine Greek. To support this derivation, the ORav. form