camicia

Forms

camicia f (plural camicie, diminutive camicétta or camicìna or camicìno m or camiciòla or (uncommon) camiciòlo m, augmentative camiciòtto or camicióna or camicióne m, pejorative camiciàccia)^[1] Old Italian also wrote camiscia, camisa, camixa and camesa, the last forms mostly in the north.^[2][3] The form camiscia was in literary use from the late 13th to the early 19th century.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin camisia, a Late Latin word of uncertain origin.^[5][6][7][1] Jerome (died 420) is the first to use it, and he presents it as a foreign word for a linen garment worn by soldiers.^[3][8][9] Devoto traces the Italian form through an intermediate Old Italian camiscia, like the old forms of baciare and cacio.^[10]

The same word is French chemise, Occitan camisa, Catalan camisa, Spanish camisa, Portuguese camisa, Sardinian camija and Romanian cămașă.^[6][11] The LEI notes that the Romanian and Dalmatian forms point to a Latin base with a short /i/, while the forms of Gaul, Raetia and northern Italy continue one with a long /iː/.^[3] Meyer-Lübke took all the forms with /i/ for learned ones, a view that Wartburg judged improbable.^[11][3] DEI calls the standard Italian word semi-learned, against the popular forms of the east such as Friulian ciamese.^[8]

Most scholars, after Thurneysen, think Latin took the word from Gaulish, which had it from Germanic.^[3][5][1] Nocentini reconstructs Proto-Germanic *hamiþia, from an older *kamitja, the source of Old High German hemidi and German Hemd (“shirt”); it passed into Celtic in antiquity and reached Latin in the 4th century.^[6][9] Wiktionary gives the Germanic form as Proto-West Germanic *hamiþi.^[1] Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI mention a connection with Byzantine Greek κάμασος (kámasos, “tunic”),^[12][13] and Isidore of Seville already explained the word, wrongly, from Latin cama (“bed”), because people slept in it.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Cremonese poet Ugo di Perso, of the first half of the 13th century, for an undergarment like a tunic that reached to the hips and was worn under the other clothes.^[2] DELI first finds camiscia in the Tristano Riccardiano of the late 13th century and camicia in Dante, before 1321.^[5] In the Inferno Virgil carries Dante away “so that he wears only a shirt” (tanto che solo una camicia vesta).^[14][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named the long undergarment, worn next to the skin, and also a long tunic and a cloth bag for wool to be spun.^[2] The modern shirt, with buttons down the front, a collar and cuffs, is a later development of the same garment.^[3][7] From Leonardo, before 1519, the word also names a protective covering or casing, as in the jacket of a boiler or cylinder.^[5][7] The sense “folder for documents” is recorded from 1865, and Fanfani and Arlìa condemned it in 1877, proposing coperta instead.^[5]

The colour of the shirt became the badge of a political or military body: the model was the red shirts of Garibaldi's volunteers, followed by the camicie nere of the Fascists and others.^[5][15] The camicia di Nesso “shirt of Nessus”, a torment one cannot escape, comes from the myth of the poisoned garment that killed Heracles.^[5][16] Nascere con la camicia “to be born lucky” is of Venetian origin: there camisa also meant the membranes in which a child is sometimes born, a sign of good fortune.^[5]

Italian diminutives were borrowed in turn: camiciola gave French camisole, and through French the word reached Spanish and Portuguese.^[11] Camicetta in the sense “woman's blouse” is modelled on chemisette.^[5][6]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – Ugo di Perso uses the word in Cremona.^[2]
• Late 13th century – Camiscia appears in the Tristano Riccardiano.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the form camicia.^[5]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo uses the word for a protective covering.^[5]
• 1865 – The sense “folder for documents” is recorded.^[5]
• 1866 – Camicetta is recorded for a woman's blouse.^[5]
• 1905 – Camiceria, a shirt factory or shop, is recorded, after French chemiserie.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shirt: a garment of light fabric covering the upper body, usually with sleeves, a collar and buttons down the front, worn next to the skin or over a vest: Si è messo una camicia bianca per il colloquio.^[7][17][12]
2. A shirt as the uniform or emblem of a party or a paramilitary body, and the members of such a body: le camicie rosse (Garibaldi's volunteers), le camicie nere (the Fascists).^[12][15][16]
3. (technology) A protective or insulating casing or lining, as of a furnace, boiler or cylinder.^[7][12][16]
4. (nautical) A cover of canvas put over a furled sail.^[7][16]
5. (bureaucratic) A folder of card for keeping papers and documents.^[7][12][16]

Word family

• camicetta
• camiceria
• camiciaio
• camiciola
• camicione
• camiciotto
• camicino
• camisaccio
• incamiciare
• incamiciatura
• scamiciato

Related words

• camice
• French chemise
• Latin camisia

Usage notes

Many idioms use the word: in maniche di camicia “in shirtsleeves”, sudare sette camicie “to work very hard”, giocarsi la camicia “to gamble away everything”, nascere con la camicia “to be born lucky”, and essere culo e camicia “to be very close friends”.^{[7][15][16][4]} Camicia di forza is a straitjacket, camicia da notte a nightdress, and uovo in camicia a poached egg.^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 131
4. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 701
9. ^ a b Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier