cintola

Forms

cintola f (plural cintole)^[1] Old Italian forms include cintula, çintula and Old Italian cintora.^[2] Old texts from Ascoli and Rieti have centora “belts”, and the dialect of Bergamo has sèntola.^[3]

Etymology

It is a diminutive formed in Italian: Nocentini, GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Treccani form it from Italian cinta (“belt”) with the suffix -ola, while DELI, Sabatini–Coletti and Zingarelli put it under cinto.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]} Wiktionary instead takes it from a Latin *cinctula, a diminutive of cīncta, the feminine of Latin cīnctus (“girdle”), from cingō (“to gird”), and compares Sardinian chintula.^[1]

The LEI files cintolo and the headword as derivatives under cīnctus, beside cinto and cinta.^[11] It holds that the feminine *cincta already goes back to regional Late Latin, given its spread across Romance.^[11] The stress on the antepenultimate syllable sets the word beside cèntina (“arch frame”), which the LEI also files under this root.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine translation of the Tesoro, from the end of the 13th century, where the word means a belt.^[2] DELI dates the sense “belt” to a 14th-century legend of the Virgin's girdle, and the sense “waist” to Dante.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already had both senses: the belt itself and the part of the body where it is tied.^[2] Dante's line on Farinata, da la cintola in su tutto 'l vedrai “from the waist up you will see all of him”, made the second sense famous.^[8][10][7] The TLIO also records an architectural sense, an iron or wooden ring bound round columns and pillars, and the phrase divenire stretto in cintola “to grow tight at the belt”, that is, to become miserly.^[2]

Tuscan proverbs collected by Tommaseo use the word for what one carries at the belt: chi ha la volpe per comare, porti la rete a cintola “who has the fox for a gossip should carry the net at his belt”.^[12] The Holy Girdle of the Virgin is called Sacra Cintola.^[7]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Florentine translation of the Tesoro uses cintola for a belt.^[2]
• Before 1313 – The sense “waist” is recorded.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante writes da la cintola in su.^[8]
• 14th century – A legend of the Virgin's girdle uses the word.^[8]
• 1377 – Statutes of Ascoli have centora “belts”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A belt worn round the waist to hold up trousers or a garment: Si allentò la cintola dopo pranzo.^[5][6][7]
2. The waist, the part of the body above the hips where a belt is worn: La neve gli arrivava alla cintola.^[5][6][9]

Word family

• cintolina
• cintoletta

Related words

• cinta
• cinto
• cintura
• cingere
• cingolo
• Latin cingō

Usage notes

Stare con le mani alla cintola means to stand idle, especially while others work.^[5][7][10] Cucirsi qualcuno alla cintola is to keep someone always at one's side.^[10][7] The diminutives are cintolina and cintoletta.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 279–294
4. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 280
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET