biada

Forms

biada f (countable and uncountable, plural biade)^[1] Old Italian also had a masculine Old Italian biado and the plural Old Italian biadora.^[2][3] The northern form is Old Italian biava, recorded with Old Italian blava in Old Italian texts.^[4][2] It lives on as Venetian biava and Lombard biava.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Medieval Latin blada, a neuter plural of bladum that came to be used as a feminine collective.^[2][6][1] The Medieval Latin word is recorded in the Formulae Andecavenses at the end of the 7th century, where it means “produce of the vineyard”, and it is common in Salimbene (1281–1288).^[2][7]

DELI, GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Zingarelli derive it from Frankish *blād (“produce of the soil, harvest”).^[2][6][8][9] Prati compares Old English blǣd, and the Latin Wiktionary traces the Frankish word to Proto-Germanic *blēduz (“flower, blossom”) and Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom”).^[10][1] Nocentini and the LEI prefer a Gaulish source, Gaulish *blāto (“fruit”), comparing Middle Irish bláth (“flower”) and Welsh blawd.^[7][5] The LEI argues that the spread of the northern Italian forms with ⟨-v-⟩ fits a Gaulish word better than a Germanic source, as Aebischer had observed, and it rejects an older Gaulish proposal of the same form in the sense “flour”, since flour cannot easily come to mean grain.^[5]

The same word is French blé (“wheat”), Occitan blada, Catalan blat and Friulian blave.^[7] In Tuscan the Latin cluster ⟨bl-⟩ became ⟨bi-⟩.^[2][1] In the north the ⟨-d-⟩ was lost, and DELI explains the ⟨-v-⟩ of biava as a glide that kept the two vowels apart (⟨biada⟩ > ⟨biaa⟩ > ⟨biava⟩).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is a letter from San Gimignano written before 1253, where the word names cereal crops.^[4][9] Medieval Latin had used the word in Italy since 1009, at Farfa, and throughout that century from the Alps to Rome.^[2] DELI's first dated sense, from Ristoro in 1282, is any grain fed to animals.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word covered the cereals eaten by people and beasts alike, wheat being the noblest of them, and by extension also legumes.^[4] Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, uses the masculine biado, and Dante uses the plural for the standing crops in 1304–1308.^[2] A proverb recorded in the TLIO says that the grain is always more plentiful in other people's fields.^[4] Ristoro writes that a kingdom must first send farmers to till the land “per recòllare la biada” (to gather the grain).^[3]

The derivative biadaiuolo, a dealer in grain, is frequent from 1285.^[2] Biadume and biadame, collective names for all kinds of grain, appear in the 16th century and were later argued over by the purists.^[2][10] In Tuscany and the Alpine regions the word came to mean oats in particular.^[11][8] In literary use the plural still means the crops in the fields, as in Carducci's “Madre di biade e viti” (mother of grain and vines) for Italy.^[11] A regional figurative phrase, dare la biada a uno, means to beat someone soundly or to be far better than them.^[11]

Timeline

• Late 7th century – Medieval Latin blada “produce of the vineyard” appears in the Formulae Andecavenses.^[2][7]
• 1009 – Medieval Latin blada is recorded at Farfa.^[2]
• Before 1253 – Biada appears in a letter from San Gimignano.^[4]
• 1282 – Ristoro uses biada for grain fed to animals.^[2]
• 1285 – Biadaiuolo “grain dealer” is recorded.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses the masculine biado.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses the plural biade for the crops.^[2]
• 1574 – Biadume is recorded in a proclamation.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any cereal used as fodder for animals, especially for horses and pack animals: Il garzone portò la biada alle mule.^[6][8][9]
2. (literary, archaic, chiefly in the plural) The crops standing in the fields, grain.^[6][8][12]
3. (Tuscany) oats.^[6][8][11]

Word family

• biadaiolo
• biadare
• abbiadare
• biadume

Related words

• French blé

Usage notes

The usual phrase is dare la biada ai cavalli (to feed the horses their grain).^[6][9] Biada selvatica is the name of a wild grass, the forasacco.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 6, 215
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 139
11. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse