cicerchia

Forms

cicerchia f (plural cicerchie)^[1] Old Italian forms include cicierchia, Emilian cexerchia and Bolognese ciserchia.^[2][3] Dialect forms include Teramano kikerkye and Neapolitan kikirkye.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cicercula (“small chickpea”), a diminutive of cicera (“chickling”), from cicer (“chickpea”), the source of cece.^{[5][6][7][8][1][9]} The Latin word also had a neuter form cicerculum (5th century).^[3]

It lives on in Friulian cesèrcli and was borrowed into German Kicherling.^[3] Spanish cicercha was taken from Italian or by learned transmission.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old Piedmontese form cixercla appears at Chieri in 1253.^[3] The Tuscan word is first recorded in the statutes of a Sienese society of about 1303, naming the plant Lathyrus sativus, a legume like the chickpea and the lentil.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Z. Bencivenni (1310) and Crescenzi's treatise in Italian (about 1350) treat it as a field crop, and the Italian Palladio advises sowing it in January.^[5][3][10] The word also named the seed and the dish made from it.^[3][2]

The seeds contain a poison, lathyrine, harmful to people and animals, and the crop is now grown little, mostly for fodder.^[11][7] Gabrielli records the figurative phrase aver mangiato le cicerchie, “to have eaten chicklings”, for seeing things wrongly.^[12]

Timeline

• 1253 – Old Piedmontese cixercla is recorded at Chieri.^[3]
• c. 1303 – The statutes of a Sienese society use cicerchie.^[2][3]
• 1310 – Z. Bencivenni writes cicierchie.^[5][3]
• 1360 – Emilian cexerchia is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The grass pea or chickling vetch (Lathyrus sativus), a climbing legume with pink, white or blue flowers, grown for fodder and its seeds.^{[7][13][14][1]}
2. The seed of this plant, eaten by people and animals.^[13][15][14]

Word family

• cicerchiata
• cicerchina
• cicerchione

Related words

• cece
• latiro
• Latin cicer

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 123
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
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. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse