bieta

Forms

bieta f (plural biete)^[1] Early forms include Old Italian bleda and the plural Old Italian blete.^[2] Cookery texts of the late 15th century also have Old Italian vieta and Old Italian bieda.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin blēta, the late form of Latin bēta (“beet”) reshaped by blitum, the name of another pot-herb.^[2][3][4][1] The LEI finds the late form first in the 6th century, in Alexander of Tralles, and explains it as a cross with the plant name or with its plural blita.^[3] It finds less convincing the views of it as a metathesis of a diminutive *bētula (Rohlfs) or as a feminine singular made from that plural.^[3] DELI puts the word under the classical name but agrees that it must have been influenced by the other plant, since the long ⟨ē⟩ cannot explain the diphthong ⟨ie⟩.^[5] Nocentini sees the two Latin names of similar vegetables merging into one outcome.^[6]

The reshaped form is also Friulian blede, Occitan bledo, Catalan bleda and Spanish bleda, while the classical form lives on in Sardinian beda and French bette.^[3][7][6] The Italian diminutive bietola is found in Italo-Romance only.^[3]

The ancients held that the Latin beet name came from Celtic, but no clear Celtic cognate is known.^[6][1] The other plant name is from Ancient Greek βλίτον (blíton).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Florentine document of 1286–1290, dated 1287, where the word means the same as bietola, the leaf beet.^[2] The Tuscan translation of Palladius, about 1340, advises sowing la bieta in drier ground.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

Northern and southern texts of the 14th and 15th centuries show the word in many local shapes, such as Mantuan bleda (about 1300), Venetian blede and Neapolitan blete.^[3] Botanical writers of the 16th century distinguished a black and a white kind, and Bandello warned that deadly hemlock often sprouts among biete e petrosello (beet and parsley).^[8]

In the standard language the diminutive bietola, recorded from 1310, became the usual word, and bieta was left as an old or regional form, though one widely known.^[5][9] Tommaseo marked it as obsolete in Tuscan but alive in the dialect of Rome.^[10] Later writers such as Serao and Pasolini still used it for the vegetable of poor kitchens and kitchen gardens.^[8]

Timeline

• 6th century – Late Latin blēta appears in Alexander of Tralles.^[3]
• 1287 – First Italian record, in a Florentine document.^[2]
• About 1300 – Mantuan bleda in Belcalzer.^[3]
• 1310 – The diminutive bietola is first recorded.^[5]
• About 1340 – Bieta in the Tuscan Palladius.^[3]
• Late 15th century – Vieta and bieda in the cookery of Maestro Martino.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated or regional) The same as bietola: chard, a beet grown for its edible leaves.^[1][9][4][2]
2. (regional) beetroot, the same as barbabietola.^[4]

Word family

• bietola
• bietone

Related words

• barbabietola
• Latin beta
• French bette

Usage notes

The phrase bieta da costa names chard grown for its ribs.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 5, 1345
4. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
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. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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. 2
9. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET