eschia

Forms

eschia f (plural eschie)^[1] The word is also written ischia, and the masculine eschio or ischio has the same meaning.^[2][3][1] The TLIO records the old forms Old Italian ischia and Old Italian isschia.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *esclus, inherited from Latin aesculus (“a kind of oak”), with a change to the feminine gender.^[1][5][6] The LEI explains the feminine by the feminine gender of tree names in some areas, or by the influence of quercia.^[6]

The Latin word survives only in Italy.^[6] Outside the Romance languages it may live on in Berber iškir and Basque ezkur, unless these go back to a pre-Latin word, which could also underlie the Latin one.^[6] Learned borrowings from Latin are esculo and the chemical name esculina.^[6]

The origin of aesculus is unclear.^[7][1] De Vaan compares Ancient Greek αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps, “Turkey oak”) and Proto-Germanic *aik- (“oak”), but finds the suffix unclear and allows a Mediterranean substrate word.^[7][8] Wiktionary also mentions Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“oak”) as a possible source.^[1] Körting notes that the word has nothing to do with the name of the island of Ischia.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Prato document of 1296–1305, in the form ischia, for a kind of oak.^[4] The LEI dates a Prato use of ischia for oak wood to 1298.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century Simintendi wrote ischia for the oak, and Pulci used it before 1470.^[6] Writers of the 16th century, such as Alamanni, Soderini and Garzoni, used the masculine eschio beside quercia and cerro, and Soderini named it among the trees whose acorns were ground for bread.^[10] The spelling eschia is recorded from 1813, in Targioni-Tozzetti's botanical dictionary.^[6] Pascoli and D'Annunzio still put ischie among the trees of the Italian woods.^[10]

The tree it names differs from region to region: it may be the sessile oak, the pedunculate oak, or both.^[10][2] Dialect forms include Florentine íṣtya at Barberino di Mugello, éškya in southern Lazio and esca in the Terra di Lavoro, and in Naples eschia names the Virgilian oak.^[6]

Timeline

• 1296–1305 – Ischia appears in a Prato document.^[4]
• 1298 – Ischia is used at Prato for oak wood.^[6]
• 14th century – Simintendi uses ischia for the oak.^[6]
• Before 1470 – Luigi Pulci uses ischia.^[6]
• 1813 – The spelling eschia appears in Targioni-Tozzetti.^[6]
• Before 1910 – GRADIT's first record of eschia.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, Tuscan) The sessile oak (Quercus petraea), a kind of rovere.^{[2][12][11][1]}
2. (regional, Tuscan) The pedunculate oak or English oak (Quercus robur), the farnia.^[2][3][5][1]

Related words

• eschio
• ischio
• esculo
• quercia
• Latin aesculus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 1137
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 305
11. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli