fiala

Forms

fiala f (plural fiale)^[1] The old forms are Old Italian fiala and the plural Old Italian fiale.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *fiala, the spoken form of Latin phiala (“broad shallow dish”), which is from Ancient Greek φιάλη (phiálē, “bowl, cup”), a word of Aegean origin.^{[3][4][5][2][6][7]} DEI, Zingarelli and the GDLI treat the Italian word instead as a learned borrowing of the classical Latin noun.^[6][7][8]

The same word is Old French fiele, while a variant with ⟨o⟩ gave Occitan fiola, the source of French fiole, which in turn gave foglietta.^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Dante's Commedia (before 1321), where the word means a flask or carafe for liquids: Qual ti negasse il vin de la sua fiala / per la tua sete (“whoever denied you the wine of his flask for your thirst”, Paradiso 10).^{[3][2][10][11]} Early commentators glossed it as the vessel that holds wine, a guastada or carafe.^[8][10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian it was also a cup of precious metal: Cavalca writes of the golden fiale full of fragrant things in the Apocalypse, and a Bible translation lists fiale of pure gold among Solomon's temple vessels.^[2][8][10] In the 19th century it was a small glass bottle with a big belly and a long neck, used by pharmacists, perfumers and chemists, and Rigutini and Fanfani called it uncommon in 1893.^[10][3]

The modern sense, a small sealed glass ampoule for medicines or perfumes, is first recorded in D'Annunzio in 1916.^[3] The verb infialare, to put into ampoules, followed in 1957.^[4] DIFIT lists, with a query, German Fiale “pinnacle” (1879) as a borrowing of the word.^[12]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses fiala for a flask of wine.^[3][2]
• Before 1342 – Cavalca writes of golden fiale.^[12][8]
• 1879 – German Fiale is recorded in architecture.^[12]
• 1893 – Rigutini and Fanfani call the word uncommon.^[3]
• 1916 – D'Annunzio uses it for a sealed glass ampoule.^[3]
• 1957 – Infialare is first recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vial or ampoule: a small, thin glass container with a narrow neck, usually sealed, holding liquid medicines or perfumes: Il medico gli ha prescritto due fiale al giorno.^{[13][14][7][11]}
2. (archaic) A small bottle, flask or phial, of glass or metal.^{[13][14][7][11]}

Word family

• fialetta
• fialone
• infialare

Related words

• foglietta
• French fiole
• Latin phiala

Usage notes

In Tuscany and Umbria fiala also means “honeycomb”, but that is a different word, from a spoken diminutive of Latin favus (“honeycomb”).^[15]

References

1. ^ a b 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. ^ 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1629
7. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET, p. 249