calce

calce¹ lime

Pronunciation

• /ˈkal.t͡ʃe/^[1]

Forms

calce f (plural calci)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian chalcie, Old Italian caice and Old Italian calchi.^[2]

Etymology

The word for lime is inherited from Latin calx (“lime, limestone”), through the accusative călcem.^[3][4][1][5] The same word is French chaux, Occitan caus, Catalan calç and Romansh chatsch, and the Catalan form was borrowed as Spanish cal and Portuguese cal.^[5][6][7] Latin passed it early to other languages: Old High German kalk (modern Kalk) and Old English cealc (modern English chalk).^[6][8]

DELI, Nocentini and GRADIT derive the Latin word from Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix, “pebble, gravel”), through the sense “limestone”.^[3][6][4] De Vaan allows either a loan from Greek, in which case the syncope of the Latin form is unexpected, or a loan from another Mediterranean language that entered both languages independently.^[9][1] DEI too calls the Latin word Mediterranean.^[9][1][8] In much of northern Italy the word was replaced by its derivative calcina, so that it is missing from the northern dialects as far south as the Marche and Umbria, except in Florence, Ladin and the Grisons.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Florentine document of 1278, a book of accounts that speaks of “un moggio di chalcie”, a measure of lime for building.^[3][5][2] The sense is the binder for masonry made from burnt limestone.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Latin already had calx viva, and Old Italian has calce viva, quicklime that has not been slaked.^[5][2] Medieval Latin flos calcis is recorded at Bologna in 1250.^[8] The old chemists called calce any earthy powder or oxide left when a metal was heated in air, a sense now archaic.^[10][11] The scientific name of the element, calcio, recorded from 1828, comes from the Latin word through the French calcium (1808).^[12]

Derivatives include calcestruzzo (1295), a northern word, calcara, a lime kiln (Medieval Latin calchara at Verona in 1409), and calcareo (1797).^[6][3] In modern Italian calce also names a colour, bianco calce, a deep white.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1250 – Medieval Latin flos calcis is recorded at Bologna.^[8]
• 1278 – A Florentine document has chalcie.^[3][2]
• 1295 – The derivative calcestruzzo is first recorded.^[6]
• 14th century – The form calce appears in the Ottimo commento on Dante.^[3]
• 1797 – Calcareo is first recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (building, chemistry) lime: any of several solid calcium compounds made by burning limestone, used to bind mortar and to whitewash walls: calce viva, quicklime;^[4][11][13] calce spenta, slaked lime.^[4][11][13]
2. (archaic chemistry) A metal oxide obtained by heating a metal in air.^[11][10]

Adjective

1. Of a deep white colour: bianco calce.^[4][11][14]

Word family

• calcina
• calcara
• calcareo
• calcestruzzo
• calcino

calce² foot, bottom of a page

Pronunciation

• /ˈkal.t͡ʃe/^[1]

Forms

calce m (singular only)^[14]

Etymology

The word for the foot of something is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin calx (“heel”), then in general “the lower part of something”.^[3][15][4] Vitruvius already uses it for the lower part of a building.^[8] The phrase in calce probably comes from the Latin phrases with which books written in Latin referred to the end of a preface or of a work.^[3][12] The LEI notes that old dialect forms meaning “heel” in Perugia, Arezzo, Umbria and the Marche, and the use of the word for the base of the bowsprit, allow the word to be seen as popular too.^[16] The inherited outcome of the same Latin word is calcio, “kick”, once also “heel”, and the same word is Spanish coz and Portuguese couce (“kick”).^[12][6][7]

Nocentini compares the Latin word for “heel” with Lithuanian kulnìs (“heel”) and kulkšnìs (“ankle”) and with Bulgarian кълка (kălka, “thigh, hip”).^[6] De Vaan calls the link with these Balto-Slavic words doubtful, and notes that a non-Indo-European origin has been proposed without a concrete source;^[9][15] Zingarelli calls the word pre-Indo-European.^[9][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ariosto is the first to use it, in 1532, for the butt end of a lance below the grip: Le lance fino al calce si fiaccaro (“The lances broke right down to the butt”).^[3][4][10]

Semantic evolution

Writers also used calce for the lowest part of anything, as Buonarroti the Younger did, and for the foot of a mast.^[10] The butt of a gun, once called calce, is now usually calcio.^[10][4] The phrase in calce, “at the foot of the page”, is recorded from 1808 in Foscolo.^[3] Ugolini condemned it in 1848, while Tommaseo judged it not elegant but not wrong.^[3][10] Today the word lives almost only in this phrase, in bureaucratic language.^[3][14]

Timeline

• 1532 – Ariosto uses calce for the butt of a lance.^[3][4]
• 1808 – Foscolo writes in calce “at the foot of the page”.^[3]
• 1848 – Ugolini criticises the phrase.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. in calce: at the foot of a page or document: La firma va messa in calce.^[4][11][14]
2. (archaic) The end of a lance below the grip; the butt of a rifle.^[4][11][13]
3. (archaic) The lower part or base of something.^[14][15]