cinghia

Forms

cinghia f (plural cinghie)^[1] The popular Tuscan form is cigna.^[2][3][4] Early forms include Old Italian cenghia, Old Italian cingia, Old Italian cinga and Old Italian ginghie.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cingla, the syncopated form of Latin cingula (“girdle, girth”), a feminine beside cingulum (“belt, band”).^{[1][6][7][2][8][9]} The Latin noun is formed from cingō (“to gird, surround”) with the instrument suffix -ulum.^[1][9] The origin of the verb is uncertain; de Vaan tentatively reconstructs Proto-Italic *keng-.^[10]

The same word gave French sangle (“strap, girth”), Occitan cengla, Catalan singla, Portuguese cilha and Sardinian kingra.^[2][11][8] A form with metathesis, Vulgar Latin *clinga, explains Romanian chingă (“belt”) and Neapolitan chienga (“edge of the threshing floor”).^[8][11][12] Spanish cincha comes from a different Latin word, cincta, which also gave cinta.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Ruggieri Apugliese, a Sienese poet of the middle of the 13th century.^[5][7] The oldest sense in the TLIO is the leather strap that holds a saddle on a horse or a pack animal, and DELI gives the broader sense of a band of leather, rope or cloth for girding, binding or holding up.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word was also an iron bar that strengthened unsafe walls, a whip, and a ring of city walls, and tenere cinghia meant to hold oneself back.^[5] Villani compared a garment's belt to a cigna di cavallo, a horse's girth.^[13][14] The verb cinghiare “to surround” appears in Dante.^[7]

From the strap for trousers, guns and luggage the word passed to machinery: in 1892 it named the belt that carries motion from one pulley to another.^[7] Cinghia di trasmissione (drive belt) is also used in politics for a body that depends on a party, especially a trade union.^[4][15] Tirare la cinghia, to tighten one's belt, means to go hungry or to cut spending.^[4][15]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – Ruggieri Apugliese uses cinghia.^[5][7]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses cinghiare “to surround”.^[7]
• 13th–14th century – Cinghiatura “belt” is recorded in Ugurgieri.^[7]
• 1772 – Cinghiata, a blow with a strap, is recorded.^[7]
• 1892 – The sense “drive belt” is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strap of leather, cloth or rope, usually with a buckle, for fastening, holding or carrying: Ha stretto le cinghie dello zaino.^[16][3][6]
2. A belt, especially for trousers.^[16][3]
3. (usually plural) Reins; also braces.^[16][3]
4. (mechanics) A belt in a closed loop that carries motion between two pulleys;^[16][6][15] cinghia di trasmissione, a drive belt.^[16][6][15]
5. (archaic) An iron bar used to shore up unsafe walls.^[16][3]

Word family

• cinghiata
• cinghiare
• cinghiatura
• cinghietta
• cinghione

Related words

• cinghio
• cingere
• cinta
• cengia
• Latin cingulum

Usage notes

Tirare or stringere la cinghia (to tighten one's belt) means to go short or save hard, and cinghia di trasmissione is used figuratively for a go-between or a dependent organisation.^[16][3][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 336
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 944
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET