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1 CANE CORSO
Notes on the Etymology of the Name – Research Concerning the Use of the Cane Corso in Agro-Pastoral Activities in Southern Italy.
"Corsus" is a very ancient Provencal adjective that means "robusto" in Italian - in English "robust" - and that in the spoken language of many areas of Southern Italy has the same meaning even today, to the point that it has actually been changed into a noun: Corso. One cannot exclude the possibility of a Provencal influence if one considers that the Angevins from Provence might have been among the "tourists" who, from 1246-1442, raided here and there in the lands of Southern Italy that had been marked for conquest. To this etymological supposition we can add another, equally authoritative, from "I nostri cani" (2/79) by L. Gentili. Recalling Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columnella in his "De re rustica" Gentile points out that the guard dog was called "cane da corte" where "corte" indicates, etymologically, an enclosed and fenced-in area (courtyard): cohora, chors, cors. Cohors, in any case, also takes on the meaning of "body guard" – cohors praetoria (Caesar): the general’s body guard; cohors regia (Livy): the king’s body guard; cohors scortum (Cicero): protector, escort, today..."gorilla". Supposing, then, that power, muscle, and vigor would have been required by such roles, we find it very clear that "corso" indeed indicates a "robust" dog used to guard and defend. In Southern Italy "Corso" becomes "cors" in its original idiom due to the practice of dropping final vowels. Because of the precise function and some of the morphological characteristics of the individual dog, for Southern Italy "Cors" has always, without fail, meant "robust." [Illustration 1] The legionary’s war dog was an efficient and terrible killing tool: very aggressive and protected by an iron-spiked collar, it was carefully trained to throw itself on the enemy and kill him with bites to the throat.
An elderly matchmaker from Capitanata, when the bride’s family asked for references for the groom, responded with great simplicity: "jč nu cors". It was more than a speech. The woman wanted, in other words, to say that all of the manly and masculine virtues, both physical and moral, were united in that young man. He was tenacious, vigorous, and...virile. It is difficult to unravel the relationship between the qualities of the man and those the dog: Do qualities of the man describe the dog, or do those of the dog describe the man? In the strip of land between Lucania and Calabria, in certain limited areas, the tern "Can’ Huzz", that is, "Cane Guzzo" by phonetic extension, was used, with the same meaning: "robust" and "strong." And finally, in upper Lucania, especially towards Irpinia, there was "Cuňrsicu": Corsico, Cane Coriscano – a robust and strong dog. In Molise and the surrounding areas people have always talked about "Corzi" or "Corsi" dogs: short haired molossoids with larger appetites than the Abruzzese mastiff, which were employed as "cani da corte" (courtyard dogs) to guard farm buildings and the masters’ large villas in addition to being used as "cani da presa" (seizing dogs) in big-game hunting (especially for boar, wolf, and bear). The term "Corzo" or "Corso" probably is derived from the Latin cohortium, the genitive plural of the word cohors, (or chors) cohortis, understood as the terrain adjacent to the villa, akin to the hortus, -us (garden). It would have been used, more or less, to designate the dog held in the cohors-villatica, that is to say, the "Canis Villaticus." The Abruzzese and Molisano dictionary (Rome 1968) written by Ernesto Gianmaria contains the term "Córz∂", used in the dialect of Campobasso to indicate a "guard dog." And so, because of its wide-spread diffusion throughout Southern Italy and Sicily with this name, the dog was and is just simply cane corso. It was "Cane Corso" and remains such because of a solid tradition, because of the pride that the people of the south feel for their helper, and because of the trust that they have in the E.N.C.I (National Association of Italian Dog-Lovers), which has been closely following the process of the breed’s definitive recognition for the past several years. We, in any case, set off down the paths that our Dog traveled along side man, lighting his burdens and contributing to his progress, always unconditionally faithful, courageous without being arrogant, and proud without being presumptuous. |
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