cicogna

Forms

cicogna f (plural cicogne)^[1] Old Italian forms include zigonia, Old Italian cegogna, Old Italian cecognia and Old Italian cicongnia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cicōnia (“stork”), recorded from Plautus.^{[4][5][6][1][3]} The Latin word lives on in all the Romance languages except Romanian and Sardinian, whose lands have no storks.^[3][7] Nocentini gives Occitan cegonha, from which French cigogne was taken, with Catalan cegonya, Spanish cigüeña and Portuguese cegonha.^[5][8] Old French had ciguigne from 1113.^[3]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[4][6][9] It is a reduplicated form, as Latin cōnea (“stork”), the form of Praeneste, shows, which Plautus cites.^{[10][5][11][7]} Nocentini and Wiktionary connect it with canō (“to sing”), from the bird's characteristic sound, and Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *kekoh₂n- from the root Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- (“to sing”).^[5][1] De Vaan doubts that the clattering of a stork's bill would be called singing, and takes the reduplication as onomatopoeic, as in cicāda.^[10] Battisti and Alessio think it is probably a Mediterranean word, comparing the Etruscan personal names ⟨Cicu⟩ and ⟨Cicunia⟩.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Bergamasque paraphrase of the Ten Commandments from the middle of the 13th century, with the form zigonia.^[2][3] DELI's first record is the Florentine poet Garzo, which it dates to about 1225, while the TLIO and the LEI place Garzo in the second half of the century.^[4][3] The sense is the large migratory bird with long legs and a red bill.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the Italian Tesoro of Brunetto Latini the stork is a great bird without a tongue that makes a loud noise by clapping its bill.^[12][13] Dante borrowed that noise for the damned whose teeth chatter with cold, mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna (“setting their teeth to the note of the stork”, Inferno 32.36).^[13] Old Italian also used the word for the ibis.^[2]

Isidore of Seville already called the long-armed lever for drawing water from a well ciconia, and the LEI notes that the bird and the tool are named in Romance from equally early times.^[7][3] In Italian it appears for the well sweep in Sicily in 1348 and later names the beam that holds a bell in balance and a bracket that carries a gutter.^[2][7][6]

The idea that the stork brings babies came recently from the countries of the north, and gives è arrivata la cicogna, “the stork has come”, for the birth of a child.^[7][6][14] In 1944 Malaparte called a German light aircraft that could fly very slowly cicogna, a calque of German Storch.^[4][15] Since 1970 the word has named a two-deck transporter for cars.^[4][15]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – A Bergamasque paraphrase of the Decalogue has zigonia.^[2][3]
• Second half of the 13th century – The Florentine poet Garzo uses cicogna.^[2][3]
• c. 1313 – Dante uses the word in the Commedia.^[3]
• 1348 – Senisio's Sicilian Declarus uses it for the machine that draws water from wells.^[2]
• 1354 – At Rome the word names the beam that balances a bell.^[7]
• 1944 – Malaparte uses cicogna for a German reconnaissance aircraft.^[4]
• 1970 – The Zingarelli records the sense of a car transporter.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stork, especially the white stork (Ciconia ciconia), a large migratory wading bird with long red legs and bill.^[6][14][16]
2. (zoology) With a capital: the genus of storks.^[6][16]
3. A two-deck car transporter lorry; a bisarca.^[6][14][16]
4. (aviation, military) A German single-engined reconnaissance aircraft of the Second World War that could land in a very short space.^[14][16][17]
5. (building) A curved iron bracket that carries a gutter.^[6][14][16]
6. (dated) A wooden beam that holds a bell in balance.^[6][17][15]
7. (dated) A well sweep, a pivoted beam for drawing water from a well.^[6][16][17]

Word family

• cicognino

Related words

• Latin cicōnia

Usage notes

Aspettare la cicogna means to be expecting a baby, and è arrivata la cicogna announces a birth.^[14][6] Kinds of stork include the cicogna bianca, the cicogna nera and the cicogna dal becco a sella, and cicogna gozzuta is a name of the marabou.^[14][15] The young bird is a cicognino, a word Dante already uses.^[15][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 149
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 930
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 126
14. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti