cimice

Forms

cimice f (plural cimici)^[1] Old Italian forms include cimici (plural) and the Sicilian chimichi.^[2] The word is masculine in many southern dialects, as the Latin word was.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cīmex (“bedbug”), continued from its accusative form.^[5][6][7][1] Latin had the noun as a masculine;^[4] Italian, Tuscan and most western Romance varieties made it feminine.^[4]

The Latin word survives in almost every Romance language, mostly from a Vulgar Latin base remodelled on the accusative: Friulian cìmis, Old Occitan cimecz, Old Spanish cisme, Old Galician-Portuguese chimse, Sardinian chìmighe, the Vegliote cinco and a dialectal Romanian cínce.^[4][8] Spanish replaced its old form with Spanish chinche, from a Mozarabic form, from the 14th century on, and French replaced the word with French punaise, literally “the stinking one”.^[4][3][9] Southern Italian forms with an initial ⟨p-⟩ such as Neapolitan pemmece have been explained by the influence of pulex (“flea”) and by dissimilation, but DEI finds no explanation sufficient.^[8][3]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[5][6][10] It has the same ending as culex (“gnat”) and the word for flea.^[10][11] A link with Indo-European words for “dark, black” has been proposed, but de Vaan finds it unconvincing.^[10] DEI suggests a Mediterranean word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Florentine Zucchero Bencivenni, about 1310, for the bug that gives off a nasty smell.^[5][2] The early translations of Palladius and Crescenzi, of the first half of the 14th century, deal with ways to rid houses of bedbugs.^[12][4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named above all the bedbug, the insect that hides in the cracks of walls and beds and comes out at night to suck blood; the dictionaries still define the general sense by it.^[12][13] Burchiello's line Cimici e pulci con molti pidocchi (“bedbugs and fleas with plenty of lice”) shows it in comic verse of the 15th century.^[14][4] Tommaseo records the saying più poltron ch'una cimice “lazier than a bedbug”, from the way the insect lets itself be caught without moving.^[14]

In the 20th century Roman usage applied the word to the drawing pin, a calque of punaise, which has both senses.^[3][12][15] The sense comes from pushing the pin in with the thumb, as if crushing a bug.^[13][16] Under Fascism the word was used jokingly or with scorn for the oval party badge worn in the buttonhole.^[3][13] The latest sense, a hidden microphone, came through journalism: the device is hidden in cracks of furniture or in a telephone, where the insect hides.^[13][17]

English chinch, now used only in the United States, is traced to Spanish and Italian; it is recorded from before 1625.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses cimice in Florence.^[5][2]
• First half of the 14th century – The plural cimici appears in the Tuscan translation of Palladius.^[4]
• 1348 – Sicilian chimichi is recorded in Senisio's Declarus.^[4]
• c. 1449 – Burchiello uses the word.^[4]
• Before 1625 – English chinch is first recorded.^[18]
• 1797 – Cimiciaio “place full of bedbugs” is recorded.^[5]
• 20th century – Cimice “drawing pin” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) A bug of the order of true bugs (Heteroptera), especially the bedbug (Cimex lectularius), a flat reddish insect that sucks human blood and smells foul when crushed: Le cimici avevano invaso il materasso.^{[7][16][15][1]}
2. (zoology) Any of various plant-feeding bugs of the family Pentatomidae, the shield bugs, often brightly coloured and harmful to crops (cimice dei campi).^[16][13][1]
3. (colloquial) A drawing pin with a broad head.^[7][17][19]
4. (slang) A bug: a hidden miniature microphone used for spying or police surveillance.^[7][17][1]
5. (historical, derogatory) The badge of the Fascist party worn in the buttonhole.^[7][15][19]

Word family

• cimiciaio
• cimicioso
• cimicione
• cimicina
• cimiciattolo

Related words

• Latin cimex
• French punaise

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 939
4. ^ 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, 205
5. ^ a b c d e 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 d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ 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
17. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
19. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana