cinghiale

Forms

cinghiale m (plural cinghiali)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin singulāris (“solitary”), from the phrase porcus singulāris, “the solitary pig”, the boar that lives alone.^[2][3][4][5] Its form was influenced by cinghia (“strap, girth”), for the band of lighter bristles around the animal's neck.^[2][3][4][6]

Wiktionary gives the path from Vulgar Latin *singlāris through an earlier *singhiare;^[1][7] Sabatini–Coletti give an assimilated *singlale.^[1][7] The old forms Old Italian cinghiare and cinghiaro keep the ⟨r⟩, and the Italian Wiktionary takes the modern form for a change of ⟨r⟩ to ⟨l⟩ from the first of them.^[8][9] Tuscan cignale has the form of cigna, the Tuscan word for that strap.^[10][6]

The same Latin word is Old French sengler, whose modern form French sanglier has another suffix, Occitan senglar and Catalan porc senglar.^[3][11][12] singolare is its learned doublet.^[1] The Latin word for the boar, aper, survives only in Sardinia, according to DEI.^[12] singulāris is formed from singulus (“single, one each”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *s(e)m-gʰ- with a distributive particle.^[1][13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Folgore da San Gimignano, at the end of the 13th century, has the plural cinghiari among the game of February: bella caccia / di cervi, cavrioli e di cinghiare.^[2][15] The TLIO's first record is the Sienese Fatti di Cesare, also of the end of the 13th century.^[8] The form cinghiale is first dated to Antonio Pucci, who died in 1388.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also said porco cinghiale, and used the word for the meat of the animal.^[8][16] The Old Italian forms vary widely: cenghiale, cinghiaro, the northern çenghiar, and in Perugia porcie sengnialie (1350–1380).^[8][2] Tasso used the name for a sea fish with a snout like a boar's, and pesce cinghiale is still the boarfish.^[6][5]

The modern dictionaries add the tanned skin, used for gloves and bags, and a figurative sense: a rough, rude person.^[4][10]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – Folgore da San Gimignano uses the plural cinghiari.^[2]
• Late 13th century – the Sienese Fatti di Cesare have the word.^[8]
• 1350–1380 – Perugian documents have porcie sengnialie.^[2]
• Before 1388 – Antonio Pucci uses the form cinghiale.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The wild boar (Sus scrofa), a wild pig with a large head, long snout, upturned tusks, bristly coat and short curled tail; the ancestor of the domestic pig.^[4][10][5]
2. The meat of the wild boar: pappardelle al cinghiale.^[4][10][7]
3. The tanned skin of the wild boar, used for gloves, bags and belts.^[4][10][17]
4. (figurative) A rough, rude person.^[4][10]

Word family

• cinghialetto
• cinghialessa

Related words

• singolare
• cinghia
• French sanglier
• Latin singulāris

Usage notes

The feminine forms cinghiala and cinghialessa are rare; the female is usually called femmina del cinghiale or cinghiale femmina.^[5][7] The popular Tuscan form is cignale, and cinghiare is old.^[10][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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)
6. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 292
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 945
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 155
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli