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fallo

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Italian has two nouns spelled fallo: fallo “fault, error”, formed from the verb fallare, and the learned fallo “phallus”, from Greek;[1][2][3] DELI, GRADIT and the GDLI give them separate headwords.[1][2][3]

fallo1 fault, foul

Pronunciation

Forms

fallo m (plural falli)[4]

Etymology

The noun for a fault or error is a deverbal noun of fallare (“to err, to sin”), formed without a suffix, like falla.[1][5][2][6] The verb is inherited from Late Latin fallāre, a verb of the glosses that replaced classical Latin fallere (“to deceive, to fail”) (which also gave fallire).[1][5] Wiktionary compares Spanish fallo.[4]

As a sporting term, the noun displaced the loanwords English fault and out;[1][7][8] Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti call the sporting sense a calque of the English word.[1][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century.[9] DELI's first date for the sense “fault, error” is Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294.[1][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word covered any act against morality, divine or human law or an agreement, and so meant both “sin” and “mistake”; it could also mean deceit or treachery, a mistaken opinion, and a physical or mental defect.[9] Dante writes of a clear conscience: “come t'è picciol fallo amaro morso!” (how small a fault is a bitter sting to you!).[10] DEI dates the senses “crime” and “defect” to the 14th century, “wrong, insult” to the 16th, and “mistake”, also in ball games, to the 16th.[6]

DELI's first record of the sense “breach of the rules of a game” is Luigi Pulci, before 1484.[1] With modern sport the word became the ordinary term for a foul, with many compounds: fallo di mano (handball), fallo laterale (throw-in), doppio fallo (double fault).[2][7][11] Textile workers use it for a weaving flaw.[2][7] The adjective falloso, “making many fouls”, is recorded in 1942.[1]

Timeline

  • 12th century (last quarter) – The Proverbia que dicuntur has the first record.[9]
  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses fallo “fault, error”.[1]
  • Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci uses it of a breach of the rules of a game.[1]
  • 1942 – Falloso is recorded.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (literary) An error, a mistake, as in cadere in fallo (to make a mistake) and cogliere in fallo (to catch someone out).[2][7][8][11]
  2. A fault, a sin: Ha confessato i suoi falli di gioventù.[2][7][12]
  3. (sports) A foul, an infringement of the rules: L'arbitro ha fischiato un fallo sul centravanti.[2][7][8]
  4. (athletics) A failed jump or throw.[2]
  5. A flaw in manufacture, especially in a fabric: Il tessuto aveva un piccolo fallo sul bordo.[2][7][8]
  6. (literary) A lack or failing, as in fare fallo (to fail someone): Ormai l'udito gli fa fallo.[7][11][12]

Word family

  • falloso
  • fallaccio

fallo2 phallus

Pronunciation

Forms

fallo m (plural falli)[4]

Etymology

The word for a phallus is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Late Latin phallus, from Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós, “penis”).[1][5][2][6] DELI calls the Greek word of Indo-European origin, and Nocentini derives it from the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to swell”), which also gave Latin follis (“bellows”).[1][5][4] DEI also relates it to that Latin word.[6] The same Greek word is French phallus, recorded in 1615, and Spanish falo.[5][6][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Girolamo Aleandri's Difesa dell'Adone (1630), where the Greek form is still given as phallo, overo ityphallo, for the image of the male member carried in ancient processions; the Italian spelling fallo is in Anton Maria Salvini in 1728.[1][5]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the image of the male organ carried in the festivals of Bacchus: Salvini speaks of “la processione del fallo”.[13] Tommaseo noted that Parini's manuscripts spell it phallo to keep it apart from the word for a fault.[14] Medicine took up the plain anatomical sense in the 19th century.[6]

By the shape, the name passed to a fungus, the stinkhorn (genus Phallus), already in Giambattista Marino.[13][2] DEI and REW record fallo, fallone and fellone in Rome for a long loaf of bread.[6][15] Derivatives include fallico (first half of the 16th century, from the Greek adjective) and the 20th-century fallocrazia and fallocrate.[5]

Timeline

  • 1630 – Girolamo Aleandri uses phallo for the cult image.[1]
  • 1728 – Anton Maria Salvini uses fallo.[1]
  • 19th century – The word enters medical use.[6]
  • 1983 – Fallocrate is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The penis.[2][7][8]
  2. In ancient religions, an image of the erect male organ, a symbol of fertility and an object of worship.[2][8][11]
  3. (botany) A stinkhorn fungus of the genus Phallus.[2][7]

Word family

  • fallico
  • fallocrazia
  • fallocrate
  • falloforia
  • fallace
  • fallare
  • fallire
  • falla

Usage notes

Fallo is also the first person singular present of fallare, and the imperative fa’ with the pronoun lo, “do it”.[16][4] The GDLI records two more words: a botanical and zoological fallo for a fungus or shell shaped like a phallus, and an obsolete fallo, an ornament on 16th-century bridles, perhaps of the same origin.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1589
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5
  11. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ 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, 606
  14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  15. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  16. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org