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farfalla

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word farfalla

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1300 before 1300, Rustico Filippi More words from the 13th century

Pronunciation

  • /farˈfal.la/[1]

Forms

farfalla f (plural farfalle)[1]

Etymology

The origin of the word is not known.[2][3][4] DELI finds most acceptable the view of Migliorini and Duro that it is imitative, its sound rendering the beat of the wings.[2][5] Nocentini too calls it a Romance onomatopoeia built on a sequence ⟨far-far⟩: labial sequences such as ⟨par-par⟩, ⟨bar-bar⟩ and ⟨far-far⟩, with ⟨l⟩ sometimes for ⟨r⟩, express the quick beat of wings in many languages, Romance and other.[6][7][8]

The word belongs to central and southern Italy, and it does not continue Latin pāpiliō (“butterfly”), whose outcome is Old Italian parpaglione.[6][9] Körting thought it might be a reshaping of that word, and Wiktionary explains its ⟨f⟩ by the Tuscan gorgia.[10][1]

Other proposals see a borrowing: Battisti and Alessio suggest a crossing of Ancient Greek φάλλη (phállē, “moth”) with pāpiliō, pointing to Calabrian forms used only for the moth that flies round a lamp, and to a Byzantine document of 1170 with the surname ⟨Pharphallu⟩.[11] DELI thinks this less likely, and GRADIT gives the Greek word only as a possible connection.[2][12] C. A. Mastrelli, reviewing all the proposals in 1982, took it from its distribution to be a loan from Lombardic, where Lombardic *fifaldra stood beside other Germanic forms such as Old High German fīfaltra and German Falter.[2][6] Nocentini also mentions an Arabic word for “sprite”, and Wiktionary a Maghrebi Arabic origin, as in Tunisian Arabic فرفطو (farfaṭṭu), itself from Berber, as Kabyle aferṭeṭṭu (“butterfly, moth”) shows.[6][1] Devoto derived it from complex crossings of pāpiliō, falena and other words, a view DELI rejects outright.[13][2]

The bow-tie sense is a calque on French papillon, which Italian also borrowed unchanged.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Florentine poet Rustico Filippi, in the second half of the 13th century, for the insect, also in a metaphor.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Dante calls the soul “l'angelica farfalla”, the angelic butterfly that the human worm is born to form, and Battisti and Alessio see in this a calque on Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ), “soul” and “butterfly”.[8][11][3] Petrarch's “semplicetta farfalla al lume avvezza”, the simple butterfly used to the lamp, matches the proverb of one who circles danger like the moth round the light.[14][8]

The figurative sense “fickle, frivolous person” is recorded from 1566, and the augmentative farfallone meant a dandy in 1525 and a blunder by 1565.[2][6] In the 20th century came the bow tie (cravatta a farfalla in Cecchi, plain farfalla in Pavese in 1949), the pasta called farfalle (1952) and the butterfly stroke, whose swimmer is a farfallista from 1950.[2] Jokingly the word also means an unwelcome note, a bill or a summons, and in prison slang a smuggled note.[12][15] English used farfalla for a moth in 1593, and German Farfalla is recorded in 1876.[16]

Timeline

  • Before 1300 – Rustico Filippi uses farfalla.[2][3]
  • 1525 – Aretino uses farfallone for a vain dandy.[2]
  • 1566 – L. Salviati uses farfalla for a fickle person.[2]
  • 1593 – English farfalla “moth” is recorded.[16]
  • 1876 – German Farfalla is recorded.[16]
  • 1907 – French papillon is used for the bow tie, the model of the Italian sense.[2]
  • 1949 – Pavese uses farfalla for the bow tie.[2]
  • 1950 – Farfallista “butterfly swimmer” is recorded.[2]
  • 1952 – Farfalle is recorded as the name of a pasta.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A butterfly or moth; any insect of the order Lepidoptera.[12][7][4]
  2. (figurative) A fickle, frivolous person; a woman of easy virtue.[12][7][8]
  3. A bow tie (also cravatta a farfalla).[12][17][8]
  4. (usually plural) Butterfly-shaped pasta, farfalle.[12][7][15]
  5. (swimming) The butterfly stroke: nuotare a farfalla.[12][7][4]
  6. (jocular) An unwelcome note or notice, a bill or a summons; in prison slang, a smuggled note.[12][7][15]
  7. (radio) A butterfly circuit for microwaves, with two stators and a butterfly-shaped rotor.[12][8]

Word family

  • sfarfallare
  • farfallamento
  • farfallina
  • farfallista
  • farfallone
  • farfallino
  • sfarfallamento
  • sfarfallatura
  • sfarfallio
  • sfarfallone
  • farfallare
  • farfallato
  • farfalleggiare
  • farfallesco

Usage notes

A farfalla describes anything shaped like a butterfly: valvola a farfalla is a butterfly valve, nodo a farfalla a bow knot.[4][8] Correre dietro alle farfalle means to waste time on trifles.[18][17] Old Italian farfalla angelica meant the human soul.[11][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  4. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 682
  6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  11. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1598
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  16. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  17. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
Cite this entry

“Farfalla.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/farfalla. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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