fiaccola

Forms

fiaccola f (plural fiaccole)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian fiacchola, fiaccula, fiacola and falcole.^[2] Prati lists the older variants facola, falcola and fagola.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *flăcula, a form of Latin facula (“small torch”) with the /l/ moved forward by metathesis.^[4][5][6][7] The Latin word is the diminutive of fax (“torch”), formed with the suffix -ula.^[4][8][1] Isidore of Seville already called the word the diminutive of the word for torch.^[9]

Wiktionary traces the word through an unrecorded Old Italian *fiacca, from an older *facchia with the /j/ moved by metathesis, and Treccani also treats it as the diminutive of such a form.^[1][10] Devoto starts from a Vulgar Latin *flaca, crossed with the regular Latin form; the doubled /kk/ is the usual lengthening after the stress in a word stressed on the third syllable from the end.^[11] The TLIO notes that the Old Italian form falcole needs a parallel base *falcula.^[2] The learned facola, taken directly from Latin, is in effect a doublet.^[1][3]

The same Vulgar Latin form gave Romanian flacără (“flame”).^[5][12] The regular Latin form survives in Friulian fale, Old Occitan falha and Portuguese falha (“splinter”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Tuscan translation by Andrea da Grosseto of 1268, where the word means a stick of wood coated with something that burns, carried to give light or to set fire to things.^[2] DELI dates the same sense to the end of the 13th century, in the Fatti di Cesare.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the torches of the ancient world in rites: the torch of marriage and the torch of the dead.^[2] From the light it gives the word passed to any light or flame, and figuratively to burning passion, above all love, to what stirs a passion and to the person who stirs it.^[2] The Fatti di Cesare tell of men fishing at night colle fiaccole accese “with lit torches”, and in the old wars torches were also used to set ships and walls on fire.^[9]

Tommaseo records torch processions for feasts and honours, and the sense of a large smoky flame of a candle or lamp.^[13] DELI dates the figurative sense, something that lights the way or spurs people on, to 1855, and the derivative fiaccolata, a night procession with torches, to 1887 (Collodi).^[4] The torch relay of the Olympic Games, fiaccola olimpica, was introduced in 1928.^[10] Maltese and Turkish borrowed the word.^[1]

Timeline

• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses fiaccola in his translation, the first record.^[2]
• End of the 13th century – The Fatti di Cesare use the word for a torch.^[4]
• 1585 – The variant falcola is recorded.^[3]
• 1855 – The figurative sense “what lights or spurs on” is recorded in Fanfani's dictionary.^[4]
• 1887 – Collodi uses the derivative fiaccolata.^[4][5]
• 1928 – The Olympic torch relay is introduced.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A torch: a stick of resinous wood or a bundle coated with something flammable, burning slowly enough to stay lit in the wind: Sfilavano per il paese con le fiaccole in mano.^[7][14][6]
2. (technology) A device that vaporises a fuel and uses its flame to heat one spot.^[15]
3. (figurative) What lights the way to an ideal or keeps a value alive: la fiaccola della speranza.^[6][10][16]
4. (figurative) What stirs up a passion or a conflict: la fiaccola della rivolta.^[14][10][15]

Word family

• fiaccolata
• fiaccoletta

Related words

• face
• facola
• Latin fax
• Romanian flacără

Usage notes

Fiaccola olimpica is the Olympic torch, carried by a relay of runners from Greece to the city of the Games.^[14][17] The literary synonym is face.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 435
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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 900
10. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana