casa

Etymology

From Latin casa (“house”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.za/, (traditional) /ˈka.sa/^[1]

• Audio (Northern):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aza, (traditional) -asa
• Hyphenation: cà‧sa

Noun

casa f (plural case, diminutive casìna or casétta or casettìna, augmentative casóna or casóne m, pejorative casàccia, endearing-derogatory casùccia)

1. house

   Synonyms: abitazione, dimora

2. home
3. family, dynasty, descent, stock, lineage, birth, origin

   Synonyms: casato, stirpe, dinastia

   è di casa nobile ― he is of noble descent

4. homeland, fatherland

   Synonym: patria

   1. (figurative) one's customs

      A casa mia queste cose non si fanno.

      We don't do these things where I come from.

5. (board games) square

   Synonym: casella

6. structure for public use
   1. structure for a collective or plurality or people

      casa rifugio ― safe house

      casa da gioco ― casino (literally, “game house”)

   2. place of religious gathering

      Synonyms: chiesa, convento, monastero

      casa di Dio ― house of God

      casa religiosa ― religious institution

   3. institution for punishment or corrections

      casa di correzione ― corrections facility

      casa di cura e custodia ^Wp ― psychiatric institution (literally, “care and custody facility”)

      casa di pena ― prison (literally, “house of punishment”)

   4. company, firm, shop

      Synonyms: ditta, azienda, società

      casa editrice ― publishing house

      casa di spedizioni ― shipments company

   5. (colloquial, euphemistic) brothel, whorehouse

References

Further reading

• casa on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^it
• casa in Collins Italian-English Dictionary
• casa in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
• casa in Aldo Gabrielli, Grandi Dizionario Italiano (Hoepli)
• casa in garzantilinguistica.it – Garzanti Linguistica, De Agostini Scuola Spa
• casa in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti, Olivetti Media Communication
• casa in sapere.it – De Agostini Editore
• casa in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Etymology

Uncertain. Possibly from either Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to link or weave together; chain, net”) (compare catēna (“chain”)), or Proto-Indo-European *ket- (“hut, shed”) (compare Old English heaþor (“restraint, confinement, enclosure, prison”), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬙𐬀 (kata, “chamber”), Mazanderani کَت (kat, “wall”)), likely through borrowing from another Indo-European language rather than inheritance due to the presence of the medial -s-.^[1] Ultimately may be of substrate or wanderwort origin; more at cot, and see Proto-Uralic *kota.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈka.sa/, [ˈkäs̠ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.sa/, [ˈkäːs̬ä]

Noun

casa f (genitive casae); first declension

1. hut, cottage, cabin

   Synonyms: aedēs, domus, domicilium, habitātiō, mānsiō, sēdēs, tēctum

2. rural property, small farm
3. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) dwelling, residence, house

References

• “casa”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “casa”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• casa in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• casa in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “casa”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡sasa/

Noun

casa

1. inflection of cas:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative dual

Etymology

From Portuguese casa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaza/, /ˈkazɐ/

Noun

casa (plural casa-casa)

1. house
2. home

   na casa ― at home

   trabalo di casa ― homework

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin casa.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

casa f (plural cases)

1. house

Alternative forms

• cassa

Etymology

From Latin casa (“cottage”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaza/

Noun

casa f (plural casas)

1. house
   • c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 42v:

     dixo eliſeu_s q́t fare di q́ as entu caſſa. la maceba nulla coſa en caſa. ſi nõ una oliera de olio

     Elisha said, “What can I do for you? Tell [me], what do you have in your house?” [She said,] “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”

   • Idem, f. 80r.

     por aq́l logar dixo nŕo ſeñor a ieremias, ve a caſa del orcero e ẏ fablare cõtigo.

     Around that place Our Lord said to Jeremiah, “Go to the potter's house, and I will speak to you there.”

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -azɐ
• Hyphenation: ca‧sa

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese casa, from Latin casa (“cottage”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to link or weave together; chain, net; hut, shed”).

Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:

casa

Wikipedia ^pt

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Further reading

• “casa”, in iDicionário Aulete (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “casa”, in Dicionário inFormal (in Portuguese), 2006–2025
• “casa” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
• “casa”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “casa”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “casa”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Etymology 1

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French casser.

Alternative forms

• chasa (Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader)
• tgea, tgeasa (Sutsilvan)
• tgesa, tga (Surmiran)
• chesa (Puter)

Etymology

From Latin casa.

Noun

casa f (plural casas)

1. (Sursilvan) house

Etymology

From Latin casa.

Noun

casa f (plural casi)

1. house

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkasa/ [ˈka.sa]

• Audio (Bolivia):

  (file)

• Audio (Latin America):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -asa
• Syllabification: ca‧sa
• Homophone: (Latin America) caza

Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin casa (“cottage”).

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:

casa

Wikipedia ^es

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

See also

• hogar
• lar

Further reading

• “casa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Etymology

Compare Italian cassa

Noun

casa f (plural case)

1. case
2. cash desk
3. fund
4. coffin

See also

• caxa