accia

Forms

accia f (plural acce)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin acia (“thread, yarn”), the thread put through the eye of a needle.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin word is generally taken to be derived from acus (“needle”).^[2][3][6] De Vaan notes that the meaning is not obvious, since a thread is not sharp: a sense “belonging to a needle” would fit, but would lead one to expect a different suffix.^[6] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”), the root of acuō (“to sharpen”) and aciēs (“edge”).^[1] The double ⟨cc⟩ shows the lengthening of the consonant after the stress.^[7]

The word survives only in parts of the Romance area: Romanian ață (“thread”), Romansh atscha (“skein”), Dalmatian jaz, Friulian azze and Old Walloon ⟨ache⟩.^[8][3][9] Northern dialects formed from it a verb for “to thread a needle”, such as Venetian azolar and Emilian azuler, and the verb rinacciare of central and southern Italy belongs to the same word.^[9][8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears first in Medieval Latin texts of Venice (aza, 1265) and Padua (13th century).^[2] The TLIO's first Italian record is a Florentine document of 1278–1279, where it means raw thread of hemp, flax or tow.^[11] DELI's records are the Nuovi testi fiorentini of 1299–1300 and the statutes of Perugia of 1342.^[2]

Semantic evolution

By extension Old Italian used accia for coarse cloth.^[11] The thread was boiled before weaving, and parole da cuocere accia, “words for boiling yarn”, meant idle talk or wasted breath.^[11] Boccaccio speaks of una matassa d'accia, a skein of raw thread.^[8][12]

The Latin sense “needleful” lives on only in Lazio, in northern Salento and in southern Calabria, and Italian texts record it from Anguillara (1561) and in D'Annunzio's fil d'accia.^[8] In the north azza was the string for tying roasts (1549, Messisbugo), and Old Venetian aze meant threads (1424).^[8] Pisan and Lucchese acciata is a skein.^[10] Wiktionary also records the word for a fabric of one quarter wool and three quarters cotton, hemp or flax.^[1]

Timeline

• 1265 – Medieval Latin aza is recorded at Venice.^[2]
• 1278–1279 – a Florentine document uses accia.^[11]
• 1299–1300 – accia appears in Florentine texts.^[2]
• 1342 – the statutes of Perugia use accia.^[2]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio writes matassa d'accia.^[8]
• 1424 – Old Venetian aze “threads” is recorded.^[8]
• 1549 – Messisbugo uses azza for kitchen string.^[8]
• 1561 – Anguillara uses accia “needleful”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (textiles) Raw thread, especially of flax or hemp, wound in skeins.^{[4][13][14][15]}
2. (central Italy) A needleful, the length of thread put in a needle.^[4][13][16]
3. (by extension) A fabric of one quarter wool and three quarters cotton, hemp or flax.^[1]

Word family

• rinacciare

Related words

• ago
• Latin acus

Usage notes

The plural is acce, less often accie.^[17][1]

A separate accia, from Latin aciēs (“edge”), meant the edge of a blade; it is archaic and rare, and the TLIO's record is the 14th-century Cronica of the Anonimo Romano.^[11][1] Another accia is an old variant of azza, a battle-axe, from Old French hache: its first record is the Sienese Fatti di Cesare of the late 13th century, and Berni uses it in the Orlando innamorato.^[11][15][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 402
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 25
11. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana