catena

Forms

catena f (plural catene)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian cadena, Old Italian caena, Old Italian caina and Old Italian cathena.^[2] The voiced and reduced forms are northern: Old Ligurian caina, Old Milanese plural caëne in Bonvesin de la Riva, Old Venetian chadene (1297).^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin catēna (“chain”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin word is recorded throughout antiquity, from Plautus on, and DÉRom finds it in every branch of Romance, so that a Proto-Romance noun “chain” can be reconstructed.^[7][8]

The same word is Dalmatian katáyna, Friulian ciadène, Romansh chadaina, Old French chaiene (modern French chaîne), Occitan cadena, Catalan cadena, Spanish cadena, Portuguese cadeia and Sardinian cadèna.^[3][5][9] In Romanian it lives on only in Daco-Romanian and Aromanian, with senses drawn from its shape rather than “chain”.^[7] The Latin word was also borrowed as German Kette, Welsh cadwyn and Basque katea.^[3][9][10]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[8][1] DELI, DEI and the GDLI consider it probably Etruscan, and Devoto found no etymological connections for it.^{[4][10][11][12]} De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *katesnā and suggests a base *kat-es- also found in Latin caterva (“crowd, troop”);^[8][5][1] Nocentini likewise starts from the same kind of form, with the sense “arrangement in a row”.^[8][5][1] Pokorny derived both words and cassis (“hunting net”) from Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to weave together”), while Martirosyan compares Old Armenian ցանց (cʻancʻ, “casting net”) and assumes a Mediterranean substrate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century, with the sense “a series of metal rings linked one into another, used to bind people or animals or to fasten something”.^[2] DELI dates the word to the 13th century in Monte Andrea, where it is already also figurative, “bond”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used chains to close a city's streets or a harbour mouth, for the pillory (stare alla catena), as weapons or instruments of penance, and as necklaces; the plural could mean prison.^[2] Figuratively a catena was a bond or yoke, of love, of sin and the devil, and by extension a line of descent.^[2] The sense “series, unbroken succession of things” appears at the end of the 14th century in a vernacular version of St Augustine.^[4] By the 16th century it named a range of hills or mountains (catena di poggi, Papazzoni).^[13]

It also has technical senses: in building, a tie beam that takes the thrust of arches and vaults; in mechanics, the chain that transmits motion; in chemistry, a series of linked atoms (1913).^[4][14][6] It also means a group of shops or businesses with one owner, and catena alimentare, the food chain, is cited from the press of 1984.^[6][11]

The diminutive catenella is in Dante, and catenaccio, a bolt, is so called because doors were once closed with chains; since 1963 it has also named a defensive tactic in football.^[4] French borrowed the word in the 14th century as catène, the chain of prisoners, with mat de catène “raving mad” (1546), and as cadène (1540), the chain of galley slaves, perhaps through Provençal.^[15]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use catena.^[2]
• 13th century – Monte Andrea uses the word, also figuratively.^[4]
• c. 1260–1261 – Florentine catena appears in Latini.^[3]
• Before 1315 – Bonvesin de la Riva uses the Milanese plural caëne.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the diminutive catenella.^[4]
• Late 14th century – The sense “series, succession” is recorded.^[4]
• 1540 – French cadène “chain of galley slaves” is recorded.^[15]
• 1748 – Agnesi uses catenaria “catenary”.^[4]
• 1913 – The chemical sense “chain of atoms” is recorded.^[4]
• 1963 – Catenaccio is used for a defensive tactic in football.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A chain: a series of metal rings linked one into another, used to tie, hang or bar something: Il cancello era chiuso con una catena.^[6][16][17]
2. A chain of precious metal worn as an ornament; a necklace.^[6][17][18]
3. (in the plural) snow chains, fitted to tyres: catene da neve.^[6][16][18]
4. (mechanics) A flexible part of linked rigid elements that lifts loads or transmits motion, as on a bicycle.^[6][17]
5. (figurative) A bond; bondage, subjection, often in the plural: spezzare le catene, to regain one's freedom.^[6][16][18]
6. (figurative) A series or succession of linked events or things;^[6][16][14] a catena, in a chain reaction.^[6][16][14]
7. A line of people passing things from hand to hand.^[6]
8. A group of shops, hotels or businesses with one owner.^[6][14]
9. A mountain range (catena montuosa).^[6][13]
10. (chemistry) The sequence of atoms forming the backbone of a molecule.^[6][14]
11. (building) A tie beam that takes the lateral thrust of arches, vaults or trusses.^[6][14]
12. (music) The bass bar glued under the soundboard of string instruments.^[6][14]

Word family

• catenaccio
• catenella
• catenina
• catenaria
• incatenare
• scatenare
• scatenato
• scatenamento
• concatenare
• concatenazione

Related words

• Latin catena
• French chaîne

Usage notes

Common set phrases include catena di montaggio (assembly line), catena alimentare (food chain) and catena di sant'Antonio (chain letter).^[6] Pazzo da catena is a colloquial phrase for a raving madman.^[17] In Old Italian the plural could stand alone for prison.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 1459
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 812
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
14. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ 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
17. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli