fagiano

Forms

fagiano m (plural fagiani, feminine fagiana)^[1] Old Italian forms include northern fasan, faxani and fasciano.^[2] The GDLI lists fasiano, fasano and faggiano as well.^[3] The feminine is fagiana, which Boccaccio already uses.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin phāsiānus (“pheasant”), from Ancient Greek φασιανός (phasianós), literally “(the bird) of the Phasis”, from Ancient Greek Φᾶσις (Phâsis), a river of Colchis, the modern Rioni in Georgia.^[5][6][7][1]

The sound ⟨gi⟩ shows that the word came through the dialects of northern Italy: Latin /sj/ was voiced there and then adapted to Tuscan pronunciation.^[8][9][10] Nocentini puts it among words derived from place names.^[6]

The same Latin word gave Occitan faisan, from which comes French faisan, and Catalan faisà, Spanish faisán and Portuguese faisão.^[6][11] It passed early into German Fasan and English pheasant.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Libro of Uguccione da Lodi, from Cremona, at the start of the 13th century.^[2][5][7] DELI and GRADIT give Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294.^[2][5][7] The sense is the long-tailed game bird with bright plumage in the male.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The GDLI quotes Isidore for the origin of the name: Phasianus a Phaside insula Graeciae, unde primum asportatus est, appellatus (“the pheasant is named from Phasis, an island of Greece, from where it was first brought”).^[3] In the Italian Milione, Marco Polo describes pheasants in Asia twice the size of Italian ones, as big as peacocks.^[3]

Already in Old Italian the word also meant the bird killed for the table and its meat, and the phrase occhio di fagiano named a golden yellow.^[2] Modern zoology uses it for several birds of the pheasant family: the fagiano dorato (golden pheasant), and the fagiano di monte (black grouse) of the Alps.^[12][13][14] In Sicily and the south fagiano also names kinds of gurnard, from their colours.^[3][14][7] Jocularly a fagiano is a naive, gullible person.^[7]

Hungarian fácán is borrowed from Italian.^[1]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses the word.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses fagiano.^[5][7][12]
• 14th century – The feminine fagiana appears.^[10]
• 1874 – Fagiano di monte for the black grouse is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. pheasant, a game bird (Phasianus colchicus) with a long tail and, in the male, brightly coloured plumage, hunted and bred for its meat.^[7][13][12]
2. The meat of this bird as food: fagiano arrosto.^[7][12][15]
3. The name of various other birds of the pheasant family: fagiano dorato, fagiano argentato.^[7][13][12] Fagiano di monte: the black grouse.^[7][13][12]
4. (regional) The name of several fish of the gurnard family, also called cappone.^[7][14]
5. (jocular) A naive, gullible person.^[7]

Word family

• fagianotto
• fagianaia
• fagianella
• fagianiera
• fagianeria

Related words

• Latin phasianus
• French faisan

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
5. ^ a b c d e 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1582
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana