acciale

Forms

acciale m (plural acciali)^[1] Old northern forms include Old Italian açal, Old Italian açalle, Old Italian açallo and Old Italian azal.^[2][3] Wiktionary also gives accialo and azal.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin aciāle, recorded in the Latin versions of Oribasius made at Ravenna in the 6th century.^[3][1] The Late Latin word is aciārium, the source of acciaio, with another suffix.^[4][5][6] Wiktionary analyses it as Latin aciēs (“edge, point”) with -āle.^[1]

The form lives on in the north: Romansh atschal in the Engadine, Romansh itschal in Surselva, Friulian azzâl, and the dialects of Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia, Romagna and the Veneto, with outliers in Franco-Provençal.^[4][7] The Vicentine poet Trissino adapted the dialect form Venetian azzale to Italian, but it never displaced the traditional words, the standard form and its variant acciaro.^[4][5]

The type is old: Old High German ecchol (10th–11th century) may be a loan from the area of northern Italy, Raetia and Noricum, which perhaps formed one economic unit before the Romans, with mineral-rich Noricum as a possible centre.^[4][6] Through the Balkan Latin that gave Dalmatian azuól it reached Slavic, recorded in Church Slavonic from the 12th century, and Romanian oțel (from 1588) and Hungarian acél (from 1135) are loans from the Slavic word.^[4] Modern Greek ατσάλι (atsáli) is a later loan from the Old Venetian form azalle.^[4][6]

The Latin noun is formed with -iēs on the stem of Latin aceō (“to be sour”), and it is related to Ancient Greek ἀκίς (akís, “point”) and Proto-Germanic *agjō, the source of the English word edge.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in northern texts of the 13th century: the Veronese açal of Giacomino da Verona, from the second half of the century, and the Milanese poems of Bonvesin de la Riva, from its last decade, use it for steel.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for steel and, metaphorically, for any hard, resistant material.^[2] It stayed northern and regional: açallo (1321), Paduan azal (before 1389), Vicentine azzale (1560) and Genoese azale (1532) are all northern records.^[3] DELI notes azale in the Canzoniere Visconteo (1442–1500) as a dialect form.^[5]

The literary Italian aciale of Trissino (1547) and acciale of Tasso (1585) and Neri (1612) did not take hold.^[3] Tommaseo marks the word as obsolete and refers it to acciaio, and Treccani calls it a rare old variant of that word.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 10th–11th century – ecchol is recorded in Old High German.^[3]
• Second half of the 13th century – Giacomino da Verona writes açal.^[3]
• Last decade of the 13th century – Bonvesin de la Riva uses the word in Milanese.^[2]
• 1321 – Açallo is recorded in a Venetian document.^[3]
• 1442–1500 – Azale appears in the Canzoniere Visconteo.^[5]
• 1547 – Trissino writes aciale.^[3]
• 1585 – Tasso uses acciale.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic, dialectal) steel; the same as acciaio.^[1][9][2]
2. (Old Italian, figurative) A hard, resistant material.^[2]

Related words

• acciaio
• acciaro
• acie
• Latin aciēs
• Friulian azzâl

Usage notes

In a Venetian translation from Spanish, azal means the needle of a compass; the LEI takes it as a Hispanism after Spanish azeros.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
4. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 408
5. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)