endice

Forms

endice m (plural endici)^[1] An old form is Old Italian innici.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin index (“pointer, sign”), the popular outcome of the word in the sense “indicator, sign”.^[3][4][5][1] It is a doublet of indice, which was taken from Latin by learned borrowing.^[1][6]

The same word in the sense “nest egg” is Portuguese endes and Engadine lindes, and derivatives of it are Corsican endiku and Catalan endze “decoy bird”.^[7][3] Meyer-Lübke found the Portuguese stress odd.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the sermons of Giordano da Pisa (1304–1305), with the sense “model, example”, and in a Sienese statute (1309–1310), for a bird used to lure others into the nets.^[2] Fra Giordano tells sinners to keep the righteous dear come per endice, as a pattern.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In older Italian an endice was anything kept as a sign, sample or keepsake, and the word could be feminine.^[9][10][11] From the 19th century it was used mainly in the masculine, in Tuscany, for the real or marble egg left in a hen's nest so that the hens return to lay there, also called guardanidio or nidiandolo.^[11][12] DELI's first record of this sense is Oudin's dictionary of 1640.^[4]

The decoy bird differs from the zimbello in moving freely, while the zimbello is worked by the fowler.^[8] Nocentini dates this sense only before 1871, though the TLIO has it from 1309–1310.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1304–1305 – Giordano da Pisa uses endice for a model or example.^[2]
• 1309–1310 – A Sienese statute has the decoy bird.^[2]
• 1640 – Oudin records the nest egg.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Tuscany) A nest egg: a real or fake egg left in the nest so that hens will come back to lay there.^{[5][13][6][12]}
2. (hunting) A live decoy bird kept to attract others of its kind; compare zimbello.^{[5][13][12][14]}
3. (archaic) Something kept as a token, sample or keepsake.^{[5][13][6][12]}

Related words

• indice
• indicare
• zimbello
• Latin index

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 150
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli