bifolco

Forms

bifolco m (plural bifolchi, feminine bifolca)^[1] Old Italian forms include befolco, bevolco, bifolcho and the plural bobolchi.^[2] The archaic and regional variant is biolco, and the learned forms bobolco and bobolca were taken directly from Latin.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bufulcus, the spoken form of Latin bubulcus (“ox-driver, ploughman”).^[4][5][6][7] The ⟨f⟩ of the spoken form points to a dialect source: DELI, following the DEI, thinks of Osco-Umbrian or Etruscan, and the LEI and Meyer-Lübke of Osco-Umbrian.^[4][8][9] Nocentini instead explains the ⟨f⟩ as a dissimilation of the intervocalic ⟨b⟩, softened to a fricative, from the initial ⟨b⟩.^[5] Wiktionary compares the ⟨f⟩ of gufo, from būbō, and of bufalo, from būbalus.^[1] The ⟨i⟩ of the first syllable is a vowel dissimilation for Sabatini–Coletti, and arose in Umbria or a neighbouring area according to Pisani, quoted in the LEI.^[10][8] The form Medieval Latin befulcus is recorded in 867.^[11]

Outside Italy the word survives in Romansh buolch and Friulian beòlc, and as Albanian bujk, one of the Latin elements of Albanian.^[8] The northern variant biolco lost the ⟨f⟩ after it had been weakened, as the word spread through the northern dialects.^[10]

bubulcus is formed from bōs (“ox”), on the model of subulcus.^[12][1] The origin of its second element is disputed: it is usually compared with Ancient Greek φύλαξ (phúlax, “guardian”), which has no sure cognates outside Greek, while Seidl proposed a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *gʷel- (“to prick”), which would make the word an “ox-goader”.^[5][13] The initial /b/ of bōs is not the native Latin outcome of Proto-Indo-European *gʷeh₃-u-s (“cow”), and the word is generally taken as a loan from Sabellic.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the word to the first half of the 13th century, in Ugieri Apugliese, with the sense of a hired hand who looks after the cattle and works them in the fields.^[4] The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, and the LEI dates Old Venetian bevolco to about 1250.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant the man who kept the oxen and ploughed with them; the TLIO also records a figurative adjective, “that cultivates”.^[2] Dante uses it of Jason yoking the bulls (Quando Giason vider fatto bifolco), and Petrarch rhymes on a Latinising plural bifolci.^[15][16]

The figurative sense of a coarse, boorish man is recorded before 1600, in Giordano Bruno.^[4] Tommaseo gives it as a second sense, “a man of rough manners and feelings”.^[15] In the dialects the word means “oxherd” as far south as the Abruzzi, “carter” in part of the north, and the figurative “boor” has spread to the southern dialects as well.^[8] A related *bubulca became a measure of land, as much as a ploughman with a pair of oxen could plough in a day, still alive in northern dialects such as Venetian biolca.^[8][9] In astronomy Bifolco is another name of the constellation Boötes.^[16]

Timeline

• 867 – Medieval Latin befulcus is recorded.^[11]
• About 1250 – Old Venetian bevolco appears in the Proverbia que dicuntur.^[8][2]
• First half of the 13th century – Ugieri Apugliese uses bifolco for a farmhand who tends the cattle.^[4]
• Before 1306 – GRADIT's date of first record.^[6]
• 1494 – Northern biolco is recorded in Boiardo.^[8]
• Before 1600 – Giordano Bruno uses the word for a boorish man.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An oxherd; a farmhand who ploughs with oxen.^[6][3][17]
2. By extension, a peasant, a farm worker.^[6][10]
3. (figurative, derogatory) A boor, a yokel: a rude, uncouth person: Si è comportato da vero bifolco con gli ospiti.^[6][3][7]

Word family

• bifolcaggine
• bifolcheria
• biolca

Related words

• bue
• boaro
• Latin bubulcus

Usage notes

The feminine bifolca is little used.^[16] The plural is bifolchi; older texts also have bifolci.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 515
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana