farina

Forms

farina f (plural farine)^[1] Old Italian forms include farrina, farinna and farna.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin farīna (“flour, meal”), from far (“emmer wheat, spelt”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin word stands for older *farrīna, with the double ⟨rr⟩ of the base simplified.^[6][1] Devoto compares the same adjectival suffix in Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐍂𐌹𐌶𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (barizeins, “of barley”).^[7]

The word is found throughout Romance: Dalmatian faraina, French farine, Occitan farina, Catalan farina, Spanish harina, Portuguese farinha, Sardinian farina and Romanian făină.^[4][8]

The base noun continues Proto-Italic *fars (“flour”), with Oscan and Umbrian cognates;^[6][1] Germanic bere (“barley”) and Slavic words for flour and food point to a stem Proto-Indo-European *bʰars-.^[6][1] De Vaan suggests that this may be a loan from a non-Indo-European language, a word for a primitive kind of wheat.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Sienese text of Mattasalà, 1233–1243, with the sense of the powder from milling grain.^[2][4] DELI's first date is 1282, in Restoro.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian farina was meal from grain, mostly wheat, and also from legumes, seeds and roots.^[2] Fior di farina was the finest, whitest part, and in comparisons flour stood for what is best, against the bran.^[2] Dante calls the monks' cowls sacca piene di farina ria, sacks full of bad flour.^[9] The word was also used for the floury pith of some plants, for a person's moral make-up, and for metal filings.^[2]

The milled product of other substances is recorded from the 15th century, in the Italian Aesop.^[3] Farina lattea, an infant food, is French farine lactée.^[3] Proverbs and idioms use the word widely: non è farina del tuo sacco “it is not your own work”, and la farina del diavolo va tutta in crusca, ill-gotten gains come to nothing.^[10][11] Modern Greek borrowed the Italian word as Modern Greek φαρίνα (farína).^[1]

Timeline

• 1233–1243 – Mattasalà uses farina.^[2]
• 1282 – Restoro uses farina.^[3]
• 1288 – Farinata “flour porridge” is recorded.^[4]
• 15th century – The word is used for the milled product of other substances.^[3]
• 1568 – Infarinatura is recorded.^[4]
• Before 1730 – Vallisnieri uses farinaceo.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Flour or meal, the product of milling cereals, legumes or dried fruits: farina di ceci.^[5][12][13]
2. Wheat flour in particular: due chili di farina.^[5][12][11]
3. The powder from milling other substances, natural or artificial: farina di pesce, farina d'ossa, farina fossile (diatomite).^[5][12][10]
4. (dated) Face powder.^[5]

Word family

• farinata
• farinaceo
• farinoso
• farinaccio
• farinello
• infarinare
• infarinatura
• sfarinare
• farinaio
• farinaiolo

Related words

• farro
• Latin farīna
• Latin far
• French farine

Usage notes

Farina gialla is maize flour for polenta, farina dolce chestnut flour and fior di farina the finest wheat flour.^[10][14] Farina is also an Italian surname.^[1]

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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli