aiuola

Forms

aiuola f (plural aiuole)^[1] The variant aiola is also used.^[2][3][1] The TLIO also records Old Italian ajola.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin āreola (“small open space; garden bed”), the diminutive of ārea (“open space”), through a spoken form with the stress moved from ⟨e⟩ to ⟨o⟩.^{[5][6][7][8][1]} The DEI and Wiktionary note that the Latin word already had the sense “compartment of a garden”, in Columella and the Vulgate.^[9] In Italian the word is felt as the diminutive of aia, “threshing floor”.^[1][3]

The word is lost in French.^[9] It survives in Sardinian arzola, Occitan airòla, Catalan erola “garden bed” and in Spanish and Portuguese place names, and Dalmatian iarula passed into Serbo-Croatian.^[10][9][11] The form French aréole is learned.^[11] The learned doublet in Italian is areola.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's first record is the translation of Crescenzi (1320), for a strip of land between two furrows.^[11] The TLIO and DELI start from Dante's Commedia (before 1321): in Paradiso XXII the inhabited Earth seen from the heavens is l'aiuola che ci fa tanto feroci, “the little threshing floor that makes us so fierce”.^[4][5][7]

Semantic evolution

Besides Dante's image, the agricultural sense is old: Crescenzi's translation (1320) uses aiuola for a strip of land between two furrows set aside for plants, so that it can be tended without being trodden on.^[4][11] Old Italian also used it for the hearth.^[4][11] The diminutive aiuoletta is recorded at the end of the 14th century in the Bible translation.^[11] As a hunting word, aiuola or aiuolo was a trap for birds.^[11][10]

The word is today chiefly the flowerbed of a garden or a planted strip of public ground, such as the aiuola spartitraffico between traffic lanes.^[7][8][3] Dante's line is still echoed when the Earth is called aiuola for its smallness in the cosmos.^[7][3]

Timeline

• 1320 – Crescenzi's translation uses aiuola for a cultivated strip of land.^[11]
• Before 1321 – Dante calls the Earth l'aiuola che ci fa tanto feroci.^[4][5]
• End of the 14th century – The diminutive aiuoletta is recorded.^[11]
• Before 1597 – Soderini uses the variant aiola.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flowerbed: a small, bounded plot of ground planted with flowers or ornamental plants; also a planted strip in a street or square: è vietato calpestare le aiuole.^[7][8][3]
2. (figurative, literary) The Earth, small beside the cosmos, after Dante's line.^[7][3][12]

Word family

• aiuoletta

Related words

• aia
• area
• areola

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
3. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
5. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 103
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ 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, p. 3, 1057
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)