fienile

Forms

fienile m (plural fienili)^[1] The older form is Old Italian fenile, still found in literary and dialect use.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fēnīle (“hayloft”), a derivative of fēnum (“hay”), with the diphthong of fieno laid over it.^[2][5][6][7] The Latin word was mostly used in the plural, fēnīlia.^[2][8][3] Its suffix marks a place of storage, as in ovile, porcile and cortile.^[7]

The word is found in Italy, France, Provence and Spain: French fenil, Old Occitan fenil and Spanish henil.^[9][10] From the Latin plural comes Romansh fanìglia in the Engadine.^[10] In Tuscany the place name ⟨Fenile⟩ is documented from 1027.^[10] The GDLI calls the word learned, while DEI treats it as a regular continuation of the Latin noun.^[3][10]

The Latin noun was also spelled faenum;^[11][12] Nocentini traces the Italian diphthong ⟨ie⟩ to that variant.^[11][12] If ⟨fē-⟩ is the original spelling, de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *fēno- from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-no- (“yield”), from the root of “to suckle”, but if ⟨fae-⟩ is older the origin is unknown.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first secure record is the form fenile in the Cantari cavallereschi, of the 15th or 16th century, in the line D'un fenile uscì ben venti armati (“out of a hayloft came a good twenty armed men”).^[2][3] A passage of Bencivenni quoted by the Crusca, Tommaseo and the GDLI, about the scraps left in the fienile once the hay is taken out, is a forgery.^[2][13] The sense from the start is the building or loft where hay is stored.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

The spelling fienile is first recorded in 1798, in D'Alberti's dictionary.^[2] Boccalini compared a house front to a ruined fenile, and Milizia wanted fenili set well apart from houses, like powder magazines.^[3]

By 1869 Tommaseo recorded the scornful use for a filthy, neglected place, which Gabrielli still lists.^[2][13][15] In the modern dictionaries the word is a farm building, or part of one, where dry fodder is kept; in some areas it also sheltered the farm workers during haymaking.^[5][16][4]

Timeline

• 1027 – The place name ⟨Fenile⟩ is documented in Tuscany.^[10]
• 15th–16th century – Fenile appears in the Cantari cavallereschi.^[2][3]
• 1798 – D'Alberti records the form fienile.^[2]
• 1869 – Tommaseo records the sense “filthy, neglected place”.^[2][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hayloft or barn: a farm building, or a part of one, where hay and other dry fodder are stored: Dormirono sulla paglia del fienile.^{[5][16][4][1]}
2. (figurative) A dirty, neglected place.^[15][13]

Related words

• fieno
• Latin fenum

Usage notes

Tignola dei fienili is the name of a moth.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 e f 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1635
11. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ 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