faggio

Forms

faggio m (plural faggi)^[1] Old Italian also had a feminine faggia, used by Cino da Pistoia.^[2][3] Verona has the feminine Venetian fasa, and the dialect of Bergamo fasa or fàgia for the fruit.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fāgeus (“of beech”), the adjective of fāgus (“beech”), used as a noun through a Vulgar Latin phrase meaning “beech tree”, with arbor (“tree”) left out.^[5][6][7][1] In Ibero-Romance the same ellipsis kept the feminine gender of arbor: Spanish haya and Portuguese faia, beside Catalan faig.^[6][4] Other languages continue the Latin noun itself: Old French fou, Occitan fau, Old Spanish ho and Romanian fag.^[6] DEI says the adjective, used by Pliny, came in Late Latin to name the tree and replaced the noun.^[3] In the Italian dialects the older word largely survives, while the Italian word belongs above all to Tuscany, Romagna and Bergamo.^[3]

The Latin fāgus is from Proto-Italic *fāgos, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵos (“beech tree”).^[1][8] It is one of the few tree names with exact cognates despite the narrow range of the tree: Old High German buohha, whence German Buche, and the English word beech, while Ancient Greek φηγός (phēgós) means a kind of oak, a shift explained by the absence of the beech from Greece.^[6][9][8] De Vaan notes that some scholars have taken the word for a later loan because it is limited to western Indo-European, but finds a shift between two fruit-bearing trees conceivable.^[8]

The Latin cluster /ɡj/ gave a lengthened /dd͡ʒ/ in Tuscan, as in reggia and spiaggia.^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Florentine documents of 1277–1296, for the tree.^[11] DELI's first date is Petrarch, before 1374, with the beech described as a large tree with smooth whitish bark.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for the tree, for a trunk or plank of beech, and for its wood as a material.^[11] Petrarch drew close a l'ombra d'un bel faggio “to the shade of a fine beech”.^[12]

The fruit is faggiola (1563) and faggina (1875), and a beech wood is faggeta (1773), a formation modelled on pineta.^[6][5] The place name la Faggiola comes from the same word.^[2] In modern Italian beech wood is valued for furniture and for bentwood, where steamed beech, faggio evaporato, is used.^[13][7]

Timeline

• 1277–1296 – Faggio appears in Florentine documents.^[11]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch uses the word.^[5][7]
• 1563 – Faggiola “beechnut” is recorded.^[6]
• 1773 – Targioni Tozzetti uses faggeta “beech wood”.^[5]
• 1875 – Faggina “beechnut” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The beech (Fagus sylvatica), a tall tree with smooth pale bark and oval leaves, common in the mountains of Italy: Sul crinale crescevano solo faggi.^[7][14][13]
2. Beech wood, used in joinery and for furniture: un tavolo di faggio.^[7][14][10]

Word family

• faggeta
• faggeto
• faggina
• faggiola

Related words

• faina
• fagacea
• Latin fāgus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 416
3. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1582
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
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