felce

Forms

felce f (plural felci)^[1] Old Italian also has the plural Old Italian filichi.^[2] The GDLI records an old variant Old Italian fela.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin filix (“fern”), from its accusative, with the loss of the unstressed vowel after the stress.^{[4][5][6][7][1]}

It is a pan-Romance word: Romanian ferece, Old Occitan feuze, Sardinian filighe and Mozarabic forms show it.^[5][8][1] In the west it was partly replaced by derivatives: Vulgar Latin *filicaria gave French fougère, and Latin filictum “place full of ferns” gave Spanish helecho, Friulian falét and Italian place names.^[9] Old Tuscan place names such as Filicaja and Filetto keep the same derivatives.^[10]

The origin of the Latin noun is debated.^[4][5][11] DELI and Zingarelli call it pre-Indo-European, and the DEI a relic of the Mediterranean substrate.^[4][12][9] Nocentini finds only vague comparisons, as is usual for names of wild plants, such as Old High German bilisa and Russian белена (belená), both meaning “henbane”.^[5] De Vaan accepts this connection, reconstructing Proto-Italic *feleks from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“henbane”): the feathery stems of henbane look like fern leaves, and both plants were known as medicines.^[11][1] The ending -ix is found in other Latin plant names, and felix may be the older spelling.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Florentine translation of the Disciplina Clericalis, from the end of the 13th century, for the fern, the spore-bearing plant with large leaves and no flowers.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already had the name felce quercina for the polypody, whose sweet taste is like that of liquorice.^[2] The Tuscan translations of Palladius and Crescenzi speak of ferns as a cover laid over boards and of ferns, rushes and couch grass as weeds removed by ploughing.^[13]

The bracken is felce aquilina or imperiale, because the cut stalk shows the outline of a double-headed eagle.^[4][5] It was used to wrap ricotta, fish and fruit, and as bedding for sheep.^[4][5] Tommaseo lists further names for it, such as felce da porci and felce da ricotte.^[4][13] In modern botany felce is the common name of the pteridophytes, and Felci with a capital is the class.^[6]

Timeline

• End of the 13th century – The Florentine Disciplina Clericalis uses felce.^[2]
• 14th century – The name felce quercina is recorded for the polypody.^[2]
• 1869 – Felceto, a place overgrown with ferns, is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fern: a perennial plant with large, often divided fronds that reproduces by spores, common in damp woods.^[6][14][7]
2. (botany) The common name of the pteridophytes, especially those of the class of ferns.^[6][14] In the plural with a capital, Felci, the class itself in some classifications.^[6][14]

Word family

• felceto
• felceta

Related words

• Latin filix
• French fougère

Usage notes

Common names include felce aquilina (bracken), felce maschio (male fern, whose rhizome was used against tapeworm), felce femmina (lady fern) and felce dolce or quercina (polypody).^[6][14][12]

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. ^ 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1613
10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 430
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ 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