antenna

Forms

antenna f (plural antenne)^[1] Old Italian forms include antena, intenne and intinna;^[2][3] Old Venetian antena is recorded in 1311.^[2][3] Sicilian has ntinna and Venetian also altena.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin antenna (“sailyard”), the later form of antemna.^[1][6][7] The Latin word named the yard of a sail, both of the triangular and of the square sail.^[7] The LEI takes the Italian forms, Old Occitan antena and Old Catalan entena as direct continuations; Old French antaine came from Occitan, and Spanish antena may be from Catalan or Portuguese.^[7] Italian forms passed into Croatian, Modern Greek, Turkish and Maltese.^[7]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[3][8][9] DEI and Nocentini take it as a loan from an unknown source, like most Latin nautical terms, and DEI hears an Etruscan or Mediterranean ending in it.^[10][6] Zingarelli suggests the middle participle of Ancient Greek ἀνατίθημι (anatíthēmi, “to set upon”), through Etruscan.^[11] Devoto took it from a Sabine woodcutters' word, with /nd/ becoming /nn/, and Wiktionary gives Proto-Italic *antitempnā from Proto-Indo-European *temp- (“to stretch”).^[12][1] Isidore of Seville explained the Latin word as “set before the stream”, a medieval false etymology.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Bono Giamboni's translation of Orosius, before 1292, and its first sense is the yard of a ship, set across the mast.^[2] DELI gives the sense “vertical pole” from Giovanni Villani, before 1348.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word also named a pole for hanging or holding things, a flagpole on a triumphal car, and, figuratively, the upright of the cross.^[2] In poetry the yard stood for the sail or the whole ship, and in Tasso the noderose antenne are the knights' lances.^[8][11]

The sense “feeler of an insect” goes back to the Byzantine humanist Theodore Gaza, in the 15th century, who applied the Latin word to the insect's feelers.^[3][6] In Italian it is first found in Francesco Redi, between 1666 and 1698.^[3][14] The radio sense, a device to send or receive electromagnetic waves, dates from 1918.^[3][6][14] From that came antennista, a fitter of television aerials, in 1963, and the figurative drizzare le antenne, to prick up one's ears.^[3][11]

German borrowed the word as Antenne about 1900, and an older lantana “yard” from Italian.^[14]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni's Orosius gives the first record.^[2]
• 1311 – Venetian antena is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for a vertical pole.^[3]
• 15th century – Theodore Gaza applies Latin antenna to insects' feelers.^[3][6]
• 1666–1698 – Francesco Redi uses it for the feelers of arthropods.^[3][14]
• About 1900 – German Antenne is recorded.^[14]
• 1918 – The radio sense is recorded.^[3][14]
• 1963 – Antennista is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pole or mast that holds something up, such as a flag or banner.^[8][11][1]
2. (nautical) The yard set across the mast that carries a lateen sail;^[8][15][1] (poetic) a sail, a ship.^[8][15][1]
3. (building) An upright pole of a scaffolding.^[8][11][15]
4. (zoology) An antenna, a feeler on the head of an insect or other arthropod.^[8][16][1]
5. (telecommunications) An antenna, aerial: a device for sending or receiving radio waves: hanno montato l'antenna sul terrazzo.^[8][16][1]
6. (literary) A lance.^[8][16][11]

Word family

• antennista
• antennale
• antennato

Related words

• Latin antemna

Usage notes

Drizzare le antenne is to listen closely or to be on one's guard.^[11][15] Antenna parabolica is a satellite dish.^[11][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 1570
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 219
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 512
14. ^ a b c d e f Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier