cheppia

Forms

cheppia f (plural cheppie)^[1] A variant is chieppa, recorded from 1529.^[2][3][4] Northern dialects have cepa and Genoese cipra, and Neapolitan has chieppa.^[5][2][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *clipea, a variant of Latin clŭpea, the name of a fish in Pliny.^[7][8][9][1] The Italian form comes from an earlier *chieppia by dissimilation, which survives as chieppa.^[5][10][3]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[7][8][11] Nocentini thinks it probably comes from clipeus (“shield”) for the shape of the fish, and Battisti and Alessio and the GDLI also connect it with the shield.^[8][5][12] Wiktionary rejects this link, allowing at most an influence of the word for “shield”, and reports a proposed Gaulish source, Proto-Celtic *kluppā (“small fish”), for which no Celtic cognates are given.^[1] Devoto found no reliable connections.^[10]

The form with ⟨u⟩ lives on in Serbo-Croatian kobla, Albanian kubël, Portuguese choupa and dialects of northern Italy.^[2][8] The variant with ⟨i⟩ gave Friulian cièpe and the Italian forms, and Spanish chopa belongs here too.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin chipia is recorded in Emilia in 1270.^[7][5] The Italian word first appears in Florence, in the plural cheppie in a cookery book of the first half of the 14th century and as cheppia in the Libro della Mensa of 1344–45, naming the shad, a sea fish that swims up rivers in spring to spawn.^[7][13][2]

Semantic evolution

The fish's spring run up the rivers caught writers' attention: Bellincioni asks why di maggio vanno le cheppie contro alla corsia (in May the shad swim against the current), and Sassetti compared his own travels to a shad's in reverse.^[12][14] Pulci mentions shad sold by the cartload.^[12]

The name also passed to a lake form of the fish and to the round sardinella, the alaccia.^[15][9][16] Figuratively, cheppia once meant a foolish, dull person; the LEI treats this sense apart from the fish.^[5][17][2]

Timeline

• 1270 – Medieval Latin chipia is recorded in Emilia.^[7]
• 1300–1350 – The plural cheppie appears in a Florentine cookery book.^[13][2]
• 1344–1345 – The Libro della Mensa of Florence has cheppia.^[7][2]
• 1452 – The Paduan chieppa is recorded.^[2]
• 1479 – Poliziano uses cheppia.^[2]
• 1529 – Chieppa is recorded in the household of Ippolito d'Este.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) The twaite shad (Alosa fallax), a fish of the herring family that enters rivers in spring to spawn; also other species of Alosa.^{[9][15][3][1]}
2. (zoology) Another name for the alaccia, the round sardinella.^[9][16]
3. (obsolete) A foolish, dull person.^[17][5]

Related words

• chieppa
• alosa
• Latin clupea

Usage notes

The TLIO has a separate cheppia in Cenne de la Chitarra, of uncertain origin, perhaps a variant of gheppio “kestrel”;^[13][14] Tommaseo too notes that Bartolomeo del Bene seems to use the word for a bird, perhaps for gheppio.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 107
3. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 887
6. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 273
7. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 34
13. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
17. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli