arca

Forms

arca f (plural arche)^[1] Old spellings are Old Italian archa and Old Italian archia.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin arca (“chest”).^[3][4][5][1] The same word is French arche, Occitan arca, Catalan arca, Spanish arca, Portuguese arca and Friulian àrcie.^[4][6] DEI excludes Romanian and Sardinian,^[7] but the LEI lists Sardinian among the languages that kept it.^[6] Latin lent the word to Germanic, as Old High German arahha, and to Basque, and DEI holds that the Serbian, Albanian and Modern Greek forms came from Italian.^[8][7]

The Latin word is usually connected with arceō (“to keep away, protect”), a link already made by Varro: the chest is so called because thieves are kept from what it holds.^[3][4][9] Nocentini compares Ancient Greek ἀρκέω (arkéō, “to ward off, protect”).^[4] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *arkā (“container”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂r(ḱ)-h₂-, comparing an Umbrian diminutive.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in a document from Savona of 1178–1182, for a large chest used to store produce or cloth.^[2] DELI dates the spelling archa to the Dichiarazione di Paxia at the end of the 12th century and arca to an inventory of 1221.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for a strongbox for money and valuables, often figuratively, for a receptacle of virtues or vices, and for the body of a cart.^[2] In the Middle Ages, in northern and central Italy, it was especially the chest for grain and flour.^[8] The sense “monumental sarcophagus” appears in Dante, before 1321.^[3] Giovanni Villani wrote of l'arca di Noè, Noah's ark.^[11] The arca dell'Alleanza is the Ark of the Covenant.^[2][12]

The sepulchral sense explains Emilian àrca “stench”, from comparisons such as “to stink like a tomb”.^[13] Figuratively, an arca di scienza is a very learned person.^[12][5]

Timeline

• 1178–1182 – A Savona document contains the first record.^[2]
• End of the 12th century – The spelling archa is recorded.^[3]
• 1221 – Arca appears in an inventory.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the word for a sarcophagus.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wooden chest with a hinged lid for keeping linen and other things; a coffer.^[5][12][14]
2. (literary) A strongbox.^[5][12]
3. A monumental sarcophagus, a tomb.^[5][15][14]
4. arca di Noè: Noah's Ark.^[5][14]
5. arca dell'Alleanza: the Ark of the Covenant.^[12][15]
6. The lower part of a well, where the water gathers.^[5][14]
7. (zoology) An ark clam, a mollusc of the genus Arca.^[5][14]

Word family

• arcella
• arcame

Related words

• arcano
• Latin arca
• French arche

Usage notes

In zoology the name comes from scientific Latin Arca.^[14] The TLIO has a separate arca “fortress” from Latin arx, in Paolino Pieri around 1305.^[2] DEI lists a arca “band of Arab horsemen” of 1910, from Moroccan Arabic.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 837
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 269
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 614
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 65
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 270