coda

Forms

coda f (plural code)^[1] Forms in the old texts include Old Italian coa, Old Italian cova and Sicilian cuda, beside the Latinizing form cauda.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cōda (“tail”), the popular variant of cauda with the diphthong /au/ reduced to /oː/.^[4][5][6][1] The LEI points out that the reduction happened in Latin itself: the variant is well attested there and existed beside the classical form from the 1st century BC as a social and regional variant.^[3]

The same Latin form gave Romanian coadă, Sardinian koa, Old French cue, French queue, Occitan coza, Catalan cua and Old Portuguese coa, while Dalmatian kauda keeps the diphthong.^[5][7][3] Spanish cola has an /l/ of uncertain origin: Corominas traces it to a Late Latin base *cōla, and Rohlfs to an early blend with Latin caulis in the sense “penis”.^[3] Within Italy it is hard to tell which forms continue the variant and which the classical word; only the northern and southern forms that keep the diphthong surely go back to the classical form.^[3]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[4][5] De Vaan suggests that the tail was named as the loose “part” of the animal, from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂u-d- (“cleaved, separate”), the root of Latin cūdō (“to strike”), and connects it with caudex (“tree trunk”);^[8] Devoto also saw a possible link with the latter.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's earliest record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, which it dates to the last quarter of the 12th century.^[2] DELI's first date, before 1292 in Giamboni, is for the main sense: the extension of the backbone at the rear of many animals.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Already in the 14th century the word was applied to the rear end of things: the luminous trail of comets (before 1327, Cecco d'Ascoli), the train of a dress (1332–1333, in sumptuary statutes) and the end part of an object (around 1350, in the Italian translation of Crescenzi).^[4] Boccaccio also used it for the penis, a double sense that Latin, Greek and German words for “tail” share.^[10] In 1427 Bernardino da Siena used it for a hairstyle of women, and at times of men.^[4] Old Italian far coda meant to follow someone in order to court them.^[10]

The sense “queue of people waiting their turn” is a calque of French queue: French aller à la queue is recorded in 1794 and faire queue in Stendhal in 1827, and Manzoni has the Italian sense in 1840–1842.^[4][10][11] From it came codaiola (1942), a woman paid to stand in queues for others.^[10]

The idiom avere la coda di paglia comes from a tale of a fox that wore a false tail of straw and burnt it.^[4] Codino, the pigtail worn by 18th-century gentlemen, came to mean “reactionary” (1845, Giusti), and coda itself was used in the same sense by 1865;^[4] Panzini tells how in the Naples of 1799 liberals fastened on false pigtails to escape the royalist mobs.^[4] The political terms codismo (1948) and codista (1949) render a Russian word coined by Lenin for following the masses instead of leading them.^[4]

In music the word became international: German Coda is recorded from 1732, English coda from 1753 and French coda from 1821.^[12]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur have the word.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Giamboni uses coda for an animal's tail.^[4]
• Before 1327 – Cecco d'Ascoli speaks of the tail of comets.^[4]
• 1332–1333 – Sumptuary statutes use it for the train of a dress.^[4]
• Around 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses it for the end part of an object.^[4]
• 1427 – Bernardino da Siena uses it for a hairstyle.^[4]
• 1732 – German Coda is recorded in music.^[12]
• 1753 – English coda is recorded in music.^[12]
• 1840–1842 – Manzoni uses coda for a line of people waiting.^[4]
• 1845 – Giusti uses codino for a reactionary.^[4]
• 1948 – Codismo appears in political language.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. tail: the extension of the backbone at the rear of many vertebrates; by extension, the rear end of the body of some invertebrates: Il cavallo scacciava le mosche con la coda.^{[6][11][13][1]}
2. The tail feathers of a bird.^[6][14]
3. (cooking) The tail of a slaughtered animal, especially beef, and the dish made from it, as in coda alla vaccinara.^[6][15]
4. A ponytail, hair gathered at the back of the head, also coda di cavallo.^[6][11][16]
5. The rear part of a long object or vehicle: the tail of an aircraft or of a ski, the last carriages of a train: Il nostro vagone era in coda.^[6][14][1]
6. The last section of a procession, a column or a group.^[6][14]
7. A queue or line of people or vehicles waiting their turn, as in fare la coda: C'era una lunga coda davanti al museo.^[14][11][1]
8. An added or closing part; the end of a text or speech, an appendix;^[6][1] (music) a coda.^[6][1]
9. (prosody) Lines added beyond the usual metrical scheme, as in a tailed sonnet.^[6]
10. (anatomy) The narrow end of some organs, as in coda del pancreas.^[6][14]
11. (botany) A thin extension of some plant organs; the stalk of garlic and onion.^[6][16]
12. (astronomy) The luminous trail of a comet.^[15][4]

Word family

• codino
• codazzo
• codetta
• codolo
• codone
• codrione
• codirosso
• codibugnolo
• codinzolo
• accodarsi
• accodare
• scodare
• scodato
• scodinzolare
• scodinzolio
• codinismo
• sopraccoda
• sottocoda

Related words

• codina
• codona
• codardo
• French queue
• Latin cauda

Usage notes

Common idioms are avere la coda di paglia “to have a guilty conscience and take offence easily”, con la coda tra le gambe “crestfallen”, colpo di coda “a sudden last reaction”, il diavolo ci ha messo la coda “something unforeseen has spoilt it” and non avere né capo né coda “to make no sense”.^[11][16][13] Coda di rospo is the anglerfish as food.^[13][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 191
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 998
11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli