caviglia

Forms

caviglia f (plural caviglie)^[1] Older forms include Old Italian cavigla, cavillia and chaviglia.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan cavilha (“peg, pin”), also written cavilla, which came to mean the joint between the foot and the leg.^[3][4][5][1] The Occitan word comes from Late Latin cavīcla (“little key”), a reduced form of Latin clāvīcula, the diminutive of clāvis (“key”).^[3][4][1][6] DEI explains the loss of the first ⟨l⟩ by dissimilation, and Devoto cites the form cabicola from the glosses.^[6][7] The forms Medieval Latin caviglia and cabilla are recorded at the papal Curia in 1330 and 1364.^[6]

The same Late Latin word is inherited in Italian as cavicchia, and the learned clavicola “collarbone” is borrowed from the Latin word.^[3][1] It also gave French cheville, which means both “peg” and “ankle”, and the Occitan word was borrowed as Spanish cavilla and Portuguese cavilha.^[8] Meyer-Lübke notes that the word means the ankle bone in Italian, Romansh, French, Occitan and Catalan.^[8]

The Latin word for key goes back through Proto-Italic *klāwi- (“bar, bolt”) to Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂u- (“to close”); it is cognate with Ancient Greek κλείς (kleís, “bar, key”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the letters of Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, where caviglia is a peg in a wall on which a shield hangs: non ben provasi scudo alla caviglia pendendo (“a shield is not well tested hanging on its peg”).^[3][10][2] The sense “ankle” is recorded from 1310 in Zucchero Bencivenni, as chaviglia.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “peg” was the main one in Old Italian: a wooden or iron pin driven into a wall to hang things on, a stake in the ground, a hook for slaughtered animals, a bolt, and a cylinder for winding silk.^[2][10] The old saying legare l'asino a buona caviglia, “to tie the donkey to a good peg”, meant to fall fast asleep.^[2][11] Boccaccio counts caviglia among the words with a double meaning that men and women use every day.^[12]

Later technical senses were added: on ships, a belaying pin to which the running rigging is made fast and each of the handles of the steering wheel; in railways, a large wood screw that fixes the rails to the sleepers; in music, a tuning peg.^[5][11][13] DEI notes that the nautical sense passed into Modern Greek and Turkish, and Wiktionary gives the Greek word as Modern Greek καβίλια (kavília).^[6][1] The derivative cavigliera, an elastic ankle support, appears in 1942.^[3]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses caviglia for a peg in a wall.^[3][2]
• 1310 – Chaviglia “ankle” appears in Zucchero Bencivenni.^[3]
• 1330 and 1364 – Medieval Latin caviglia and cabilla are recorded at the papal Curia.^[6]
• 1942 – Cavigliera, an ankle support, is first recorded.^[3]
• 1965 – Cavigliere, the pegbox of bowed instruments, is first recorded.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) ankle, the part of the leg just above the foot, at the malleoli: una gonna fino alla caviglia.^[5][14][15]
2. A peg driven into a wall, especially to hang clothes on.^[5][14]
3. (nautical) A belaying pin to which the running rigging is made fast; also each of the handles on the rim of the steering wheel.^[5][14][16]
4. (railways) A large wood screw that fixes the rails to the sleepers.^[5][14][13]
5. (music) A tuning peg of a stringed instrument; a bischero.^[5][14][15]

Word family

• cavigliera
• cavigliere
• incavigliare
• scavigliare
• cavigliatoio

Related words

• cavicchia
• cavicchio
• clavicola
• chiave
• Latin clavicula
• French cheville

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 830
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana