cavicchia

Forms

cavicchia f (plural cavicchie)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian cavichia, Old Italian chavichia and Old Italian cavige.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cavicla, recorded in glosses, a dissimilated form of Latin clāvīcula (“small key; tendril”), diminutive of clāvis (“key”).^[4][5][6] Wiktionary explains it by the early loss of the unstressed vowel and the dissimilation of the first ⟨l⟩.^[1] clavicola is the learned doublet, and caviglia was borrowed from Occitan.^[1][7]

The same dissimilated form gave French cheville, Occitan cavilha and Friulian kaića, while Catalan clavilla, Spanish clavija and Portuguese chavelha keep the first ⟨l⟩.^[5][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the plural chavichie in the accounts of the commune of Prato (1275), for a peg of wood or iron.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named a peg driven into a wall, the pegs of a warping frame, a stake driven into a tree to make it fruitful and a pin in a mill's gearing, and also the ankle, a sense its doublet caviglia kept.^[2] Pulci used cavicchia in 1483.^[4][3] Later it became a technical word for a bolt like the chiavarda.^[10][11] The masculine cavicchio is recorded from before 1537, in Biringuccio.^[4]

Timeline

• 1275 – Chavichie is recorded in the accounts of Prato.^[4][2]
• 1483 – Luigi Pulci uses cavicchia.^[4][3]
• Before 1537 – Cavicchio appears in Biringuccio.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kind of bolt (chiavarda).^[12][13][14]
2. A large peg (cavicchio).^[12][13][15]

Word family

• cavicchio

Related words

• caviglia
• clavicola
• chiave
• Latin clāvīcula

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 829
8. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 1358
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 930
12. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli