alice

Forms

alice f (plural alici)^[1] Forms of the early texts include Old Italian aleche, Old Italian alec and Old Italian alecha.^[2][3] The south has Sicilian alice and Salentine and Calabrian forms such as alìcia.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin (h)allēc (“fish sauce”), through the accusative ⟨allēcem⟩.^[3][5][6][1] The Latin word named a fermented sauce made from small fish; the shift from the sauce to the fish is explained already by Isidore of Seville, who says the little fish was named after the brine it was good for.^[3][4] A 4th-century glossary that renders it with Greek “salted fish” suggests that the sense “fish” already existed in regional Late Latin.^[4]

The modern form with stressed ⟨i⟩ is southern: the LEI separates the forms that continue alēce directly (16th-century ⟨aléce⟩) from the ⟨alice⟩ type of the far south, with the vowel of Sicilian and Calabrian, which spread to central Italy and the literary language from the 15th century on.^[4][7][8] Nocentini suggests the ⟨i⟩ may continue directly the Latin variant allīcium found in inscriptions.^[5] The 13th- and 14th-century Old Italian alec and aleche are isolated learned forms.^[4] Körting compared Spanish haleche, a kind of mackerel, and the LEI derives the type Sicilian aleci from that Spanish word or from Old Occitan lecha (“fish”).^[9][4]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[3] Nocentini, DEI and Zingarelli take it from Greek, probably Ancient Greek ἁλυκός (halukós, “salty”), from ἅλς (háls, “salt”);^[5][7][10] DEI thinks it may have come through Etruscan, and Zingarelli adds a question mark.^[5][7][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the poems of the Florentine Chiaro Davanzati, in the second half of the 13th century, in the form aleche, as a name of the anchovy: “la talpa in terra ha bene, / aleche in agua abenta” (the mole is well on land, the anchovy rests in water).^[2][3][11]

Semantic evolution

After the isolated aleche of the 13th century the word reappears as alice only in the 16th century, with the poet Cesare Caporali (before 1601) and in John Florio's dictionary (1598).^[3][4] DEI dates the word to the 17th century and calls it southern Italian.^[7] The GDLI's quotations show it as the fishmonger's word in Tuscany too, from Buonarroti the Younger and Menzini;^[11][12] Targioni Tozzetti in the 18th century wrote of alici o acciughe being salted in little barrels and shipped all over Europe.^[11][12]

Today alice and acciuga name the same fish, and alice is the usual word in the south and centre.^[6][4] Treccani and Gabrielli add a figurative colloquial sense, a very thin person.^[13][14] The Latin meaning “fish sauce” survives only as a 17th-century learned word.^[4]

Timeline

• Second half of the 13th century – Chiaro Davanzati writes aleche for the anchovy.^[2][3]
• 1465 – The plural alicie appears in an inventory of the castle of Bari.^[4]
• Late 15th century – alici is recorded at Rieti.^[4]
• 1525 – Aretino uses the form aléce.^[4]
• 1598 – Florio's dictionary has alice.^[4]
• Before 1601 – Cesare Caporali uses alice.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) The anchovy, the small sea fish also called acciuga: Abbiamo mangiato alici fritte al porto.^[6][15][16]
2. (figurative, colloquial) A very thin person.^[13][14]

Related words

• acciuga
• Latin allec

Usage notes

Alice and acciuga are synonyms;^[6][16] alici sott'olio are anchovies preserved in oil.^[6][16] Wiktionary gives the stress alìce, with àlice as a variant.^[1] The female given name Alice is a different word, which the Italian Wiktionary derives from Greek or from Germanic.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 126
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 122
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 304
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org