eschio

Forms

eschio m (plural eschi)^[1] The older form is ischio.^[2][1] The feminines eschia and ischia name the same trees, and escolo is another variant.^[2][1][3] Dialect forms include Tuscan and Umbrian eschio and Calabrian éšku, íšku and escru.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *esclus, from Latin aescŭlus (“a kind of oak”).^{[1][4][5][6][7]} The LEI notes that the Latin word survives only in Italy.^[2] Outside Romance it may survive in a Berber word and in Basque ezkur, both names of oaks, unless these go back to a pre-Latin word that could also underlie the Latin one.^[2] The feminine eschia is explained by the feminine gender of tree names in some areas or by the influence of quercia.^[2]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[8][1] De Vaan compares, with hesitation, Ancient Greek αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps, “Turkey oak”) and Proto-Germanic *aik- (“oak”), and finds the suffix unclear if the word is Indo-European.^[8][9] He thinks it possibly a substrate word, perhaps Mediterranean, though a Germanic cognate would then be surprising.^[8] Nocentini likewise sets the Germanic comparison, Old High German eih (“oak”) (whence German Eiche and English oak), against a Hesychian Greek gloss for “oak” and a Berber word, which point to a Mediterranean substrate.^[4] Devoto found no Indo-European connections.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found as ischio in the Tuscan translation of Palladius, around 1340, and in the Perugian statutes of 1342, as the name of an oak.^[2][11] The form eschio appears from 1539, in Biringuccio, who names it among “other similar large and hard trees” (altri simili arbori grandi e duri).^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo quotes Alamanni's poem on husbandry, which lists the tree with other oaks: La ghiandifera quercia, il cerro e l’eschio (“the acorn-bearing oak, the Turkey oak and the eschio”).^[12] Botanists have applied the name to the sessile oak and to the pedunculate oak, and Zingarelli equates it with the farnia.^[2][13][1]

In the dialects the word has wandered to other plants: in Chieti ischio is the holm oak, in Cosenza esco a cork-bearing oak, and in a northern Calabrian village the plural ieschi means the trees and bushes along a river.^[2] Today eschio is a regional, Tuscan word, and the dictionaries refer to eschia for its meaning.^[5][14][7]

Timeline

• c. 1340 – Ischio appears in the translation of Palladius.^[2]
• 1342 – Ischio is recorded in the statutes of Perugia.^[11]
• 1300s – The feminine ischia is recorded in Simintendi.^[2]
• 1539 – Biringuccio uses the form eschio.^[2]
• 1813 – The feminine eschia is recorded by Targioni-Tozzetti.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, Tuscany) A name for an oak, the sessile oak or the pedunculate oak; the same as eschia.^{[5][14][13][1][2]}

Related words

• esculo
• escolo
• Latin aesculus

Usage notes

Körting, following Ascoli, notes that the word has nothing to do with the island name ⟨Ischia⟩.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 1137
3. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
7. ^ a b 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 168
11. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ 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