ditale

Forms

ditale m (plural ditali)^[1] The old form is Old Italian detale.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin digitāle (“finger covering”), from Latin digitālis (“of the finger”), from digitus (“finger”).^{[4][5][6][1][7]} The LEI explains the Late Latin word as the neuter of the adjective used as a noun; it is found in glosses and seems to have replaced the older digitābulum, recorded once in Varro.^[7][8] The Medieval Latin form didalus is recorded at Bobbio in 1388.^[4] It is a doublet of the learned digitale.^[1]

The word is found in almost the whole Romance area: Romanian degetar, Friulian dedâl, Logudorese didale, Old French deel, Occitan dedal, Catalan didal, Spanish dedal and Portuguese dedal;^[7][9][10] it was borrowed as Basque ditare.^[7][9][10] The LEI also counts French dé among its outcomes, while Körting thought this more likely to be datum “die”, from the dotted look of a thimble.^[7][11]

De Vaan finds a link of the Latin noun with dīcō (“to say, show”) attractive, but the ⟨g⟩ cannot be explained by any regular sound change, and no Proto-Indo-European root of that shape is certain.^[8] The LEI sorts the dialect forms by vowel: forms with /e/ such as Old Italian detale go back to a Latin short /ĭ/, those with /i/ to a long /ī/.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is detale in a Latin–Aretine glossary of the mid-14th century, in the sense of a small cap that protects the finger pushing the needle in sewing.^[2] The Tuscan form ditale is first found in Bandello (before 1561), whose pedlars go about selling ribbons, thimbles and pins.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Around 1400 Sercambi probably uses the word for the stick on which a goldsmith slides rings.^[4] Older texts also used it for the finger of a glove cut off to cover a sore finger, and for a glove that covered only the fingers.^[12][13][10] DEI adds a measure for silkworm eggs, and a Tuscan plant name ditale della Madonna for the foxglove.^[10] In Tuscany the thimble is also called anello (da cucire).^[14]

Modern Italian uses the plural ditali for a short tubular pasta, and the word names the rings worn on the fingertips to pluck the strings of a psaltery.^[5][15][6] The vulgar sense “female masturbation” is recorded from 1918, mostly in the diminutive ditalino (1923).^[4] Ditalino also means a pasta (1973) and, regionally, a cap cartridge for toy pistols.^[4][14]

Timeline

• Mid-14th century – Detale “thimble” appears in a Latin–Aretine glossary.^[2]
• 1388 – Medieval Latin didalus is recorded at Bobbio.^[4]
• c. 1400 – Sercambi probably uses ditale for a goldsmith's ring stick.^[4]
• Before 1561 – Bandello uses ditale for a thimble.^[4][5]
• 1918 – The vulgar sense is recorded.^[4]
• 1973 – Ditalini as a pasta are recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thimble: a small cap of metal or plastic that protects the finger pushing the needle in sewing.^[5][16][2]
2. A fingerstall: a cap of leather, rubber or cloth that covers a sore finger.^[5][16][6]
3. (usually plural) A short tubular pasta for soup, smooth or ridged: pasta e fagioli con i ditali.^[5][6][14]
4. (music, usually plural) A ring worn on the fingertip to pluck the strings of the psaltery.^[5][15]
5. (vulgar, slang) Female masturbation with the fingers; more often ditalino.^[4][1]

Word family

• ditalino

Related words

• dito
• digitale
• Latin digitus

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 842
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 20, 390
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1361
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier