enfiagione

Forms

enfiagione f (plural enfiagioni)^[1] Older variants are Old Italian enfiazione, Old Italian infiagione, Old Italian infiazione and Old Italian inflagione.^[2][3]

Etymology

Nocentini, GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and the Treccani give it as inherited from Latin īnflātiō (“swelling, inflation”), through its accusative.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Devoto explains the ⟨gi⟩ by northern voicing of /tj/, later rendered in Tuscan with ⟨gi⟩.^[9] Sabatini–Coletti and Zingarelli instead take it from the verb enfiare with the suffix -agione, and DELI lists it among the derivatives of that verb.^[10][2][11] Wiktionary gives both views.^[1]

Körting lists Spanish hinchazón and Portuguese inchação as outcomes of the same Latin noun.^[12] Wiktionary adds French enflaison (dialectal) and Romanian umflăciune (archaic).^[1] The learned borrowing of the Latin word is inflazione.^[4][1]

The Latin noun is formed from īnflō (“to blow into, inflate”), which is in- and flō (“to blow”).^[13][1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini, GRADIT and Zingarelli date the word to before 1290.^[4][5][2] DELI's first record, in the sense “swelling, tumefaction”, is the 14th-century Italian translation of Pietro Ispano, which prescribes celery cooked with lettuce against swelling and heat of the eyes.^[11][14]

Semantic evolution

From the start it was a medical word, for the swelling of a part of the body and, concretely, for an abscess, boil, oedema or emphysema; the Leggenda di S. Chiara speaks of swellings in the cheek called scrofe.^[14] Bembo blamed the swelling of his legs for his eye trouble, and Leopardi complained of the swelling of his eyelids in Florence.^[14]

Tommaseo noted that enfiagione was unknown in many dialects, which used gonfiezza instead.^[15] Today it is uncommon or obsolete, and gonfiore is the usual word.^[5][6][10]

Timeline

• Before 1290 – First record.^[4][5][2]
• 1300s – The Italian translation of Pietro Ispano uses it for a swelling of the eyes.^[11][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (uncommon, medicine) A swelling, tumefaction of a part of the body from an injury or disease: Dopo la caduta aveva una forte enfiagione al ginocchio.^{[5][6][8][16]}
2. The swollen part itself.^[8][15]

Related words

• enfiare
• enfio
• inflazione
• Latin īnflātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d 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. ^ 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 Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 162
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana