collina

Forms

collina f (plural colline)^[1] Old Italian also wrote chollina.^[2] Northern dialect forms include Milanese collinna, Bergamasque colina and Bolognese culèina.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin collīna, a noun use of the feminine of Latin collīnus (“of a hill”), from collis (“hill”) with the suffix -īnus.^{[4][5][6][1][7]} The Latin noun is recorded in a land-surveying treatise of the 6th century, and Medieval Latin collina appears in 1048.^[3][8]

The LEI counts the Italian word as inherited; it survives elsewhere only in Friulian colìne and in the Romansh collina of the Grisons.^[3] DEI thought it was perhaps a learned word, but noted that it lives on in place names such as ⟨Collina⟩ in Calabria.^[8] French colline (from 1555), Catalan colina, Spanish colina and Portuguese colina are probably borrowings from Italian.^[3][1][9]

The Latin noun comes from Proto-Indo-European *kolH-n- (“hill”), from a root meaning “to rise, tower”.^[10] Wiktionary gives the form *kl̥Hnís (“top, hill, rock”).^[1] Related words for hill in other branches are Ancient Greek κολώνη (kolṓnē, “hill”), Lithuanian kálnas (“hill”) and Old English hyll (“hill”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Boccaccio's Ninfale fiesolano (1344–1348, a doubtful date), with the sense “a rise of ground of some extent”.^[2][3] DELI's earliest example is in Matteo Villani, before 1363: corre la detta stradicciuola infino alla collina (“the said lane runs up to the hill”).^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word could also be collective, “hilly country”, the sense of vivere in collina.^[2][6] Tommaseo records the Tuscan saying Per Santa Caterina la neve alla collina (“by Saint Catherine's day [in November], snow on the hills”).^[12] The Treccani notes that in this collective use, and in diminutives, collina cannot be replaced by colle.^[13]

Modern geography limits the word to rises of ground below about 600 metres.^[4][6][14] The adjective collinoso “hilly” is recorded in 1599 (Ferrante Imperato) and collinare “of the hills” in 1950.^[4] The word passed into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian.^[1][3]

Timeline

• 1048 – Medieval Latin collina is recorded.^[8]
• 1344–1348 – Boccaccio uses collina in the Ninfale fiesolano.^[2]
• 1348–1363 – Matteo Villani uses the word.^[3][4]
• 1555 – French colline is first recorded, probably from Italian.^[3]
• 1599 – Ferrante Imperato uses collinoso.^[4]
• 1950 – Collinare is first recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. hill: a rounded rise of ground, usually less than 600 metres high: Il paese sorge su una collina piena di ulivi.^[6][14][1]
2. Hilly country, the hills as a zone: D'estate si trasferiscono in collina.^[6][14][15]

Word family

• collinare
• collinoso
• collinetta
• scollinare

Related words

• colle
• Latin collis
• French colline

Usage notes

Colline moreniche are hills formed by the debris of an ice-age glacier.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 848
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1014
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 294
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli