cinta

Forms

cinta f (plural cinte)^[1] The old and dialect form is Old Italian centa, at Perugia in 1342 and in Rome about 1358.^[2][3][4] The Ligurian form is senta “sash”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cincta, the feminine of cinctus, past participle of cingō (“to gird, surround”), used as a noun.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} DELI notes that the Latin feminine is not recorded as a noun; the LEI holds that it was already a noun in regional Late Latin, given how widely it spread.^[5][10] The masculine continues in cinto.^[10]

The feminine is found in Old French ceinte (“wall”), Old Occitan sencha, Romansh tschenta (“belt”), Portuguese cinta and Sardinian kinta (“apron”), and in Occitan cencha and Spanish chincha.^[10][6]

The Latin verb has no certain etymology: de Vaan finds Lithuanian kinkýti (“to bridle horses”) a good match in sense but hard to reconcile in form.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the 13th-century poem of Castra, from the Marche, where it means a belt.^[12][10] The sense “circuit of walls” is first recorded in Giovanni Villani, before 1348: La cinta de' fossi e di steccati … fece Giulio Cesare (“Julius Caesar made the circuit of ditches and stockades”).^[5][4][13]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used cinta for a belt, a leather strap, a defensive circuit round a town or fortress, and the orbit of a heavenly body.^[12] The belt sense is recorded at Florence about 1341.^[10] Ariosto uses it in 1516 for the band at the waist of trousers.^[10] Ariosto also has a doppia cinta di ferro, a double iron wall, and the sense widened to a simple wall round a park or garden.^[4]

In modern times the cinta daziaria was the line round a town inside which taxes were paid on goods brought in, until 1930.^[14] The cinta senese is a breed of pig from the area of Siena, dark with a pale band round the shoulders.^[14][15] The word also has technical senses in shipbuilding, architecture and heraldry.^[16][7]

Timeline

• 13th century – Castra uses cinta for a belt.^[12][10]
• c. 1341 – The belt sense is recorded at Florence.^[10]
• 1342 – Perugian centa “belt” is recorded.^[10]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for a circuit of defences.^[5][7]
• 1516 – Ariosto uses it for the band of trousers.^[10]
• 1855 – The verb cintare is recorded;^[5][6] Nocentini dates it before 1327.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A circuit of walls, ditches or stockades built round a town or fortress for defence: Le torri della cinta medievale sono ancora in piedi.^{[7][14][16][17]}
2. A wall or fence enclosing a house, garden or piece of land;^{[7][14][17][18]} muro di cinta, boundary wall.^{[7][14][17][18]}
3. The perimeter of a town;^{[7][14][16][18]} (history) cinta daziaria, the line inside which local duties were paid on goods.^{[7][14][16][18]}
4. A belt, waistband: la cinta dei jeans.^{[7][14][17][16]}
5. (zoology) Cinta senese, a prized breed of pig from the Siena area; also its meat.^[14][15][17]
6. (nautical) The sheer strake, the uppermost strake of the outer planking of a ship's side.^[16][17][18]
7. (architecture) The ring at the top or bottom of a column shaft.^[15][14][16]
8. (heraldry) A bordure half the usual width, set in from the edge of the shield.^[7][14][15]

Word family

• cintare
• cintola

Related words

• cinto
• cingere
• cintura
• Latin cingo

Usage notes

Cinta is also the feminine past participle of cingere, and a form of the verb cintare.^[1][19] In Orbetello the plural cinte named the December fishing trips.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
3. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 949
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ 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, 280
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ a b c d e Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org