The first attestations

The oldest citations of small towns are often found in notarial deeds: this was also the case for this village, which is mentioned, starting from 1278, in the various deeds of sale that assign its ownership, from time to time, to the lords of Villalta, Castello, Caporiacco, Duino, Strassoldo and finally, in 1344, to the ancient noble family of Savorgnan. In the first citation, the small town is called Çugins and later Zugino, Zuyins, Zuino.

But where does the toponym Zuino come from? The most curious, but unreliable, idea is the popular one reported in 1951 by Giovan Battista Corgnali, an illustrious glottologist and scholar of the history and traditions of Friuli, as well as director of the Joppi Civic Library in Udine: according to popular imagination, Zuino derives from the Friulian “zuìn”, “let’s play”, and refers to the fact that the owner of the town would have lost it gambling during an unfortunate night of revelry.

Another hypothesis links the name to a ford in the marshes. This is how this territory has been for centuries: rich in water and consequently also in marshes. The most recent and convincing explanation, however, indicated by scholars Cinausero and Dentesano, is that it derives from the name of an ancient owner of the land.