fiocina

Forms

fiocina f (plural fiocine)^[1] Old Italian and dialect forms include Old Italian fosina, Old Italian fòscina and Old Italian fòssina.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fŭscina (“trident; harpoon”).^{[4][5][6][1][7]} Its sound development is not fully clear.^[4] Nocentini leaves the ⟨i⟩ of the first syllable unexplained, and notes that Sardinian frùschina and Sicilian frìscina have an intrusive ⟨r⟩ in the same syllable.^[5] DEI holds that the literary form presupposes an initial ⟨fl-⟩, and Körting suggested a form *flŭscina.^[8][9] Devoto thought of a crossing with flōs (“flower”), for its many points.^[4][10][3] Wiktionary compares the added ⟨i⟩ of fiaccola.^[1]

The Latin word lives on in many dialects: Venetian fòsena, Neapolitan fosene and Lombard frosna.^[7][8] In Sicily and Calabria DEI also records Sicilian friccina, influenced by freccia.^[8] Outside Italy it gave Old French foisne (“hay fork”) and French fouëne (“eel spear”).^[7][5]

DELI calls the Latin word of uncertain origin.^[4] Nocentini connects it with furca (“fork”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin fossena is recorded at Torcello in 1290, and the Venetian form fosina at Lio Mazor in 1312.^[4][2] The sense is a shaft with one or more hooked points used for fishing.^[2] The Tuscan form fiocina appears around 1350 in the translation of Crescenzi, who writes that large fish are caught con la fiocina in acque chiarissime, “with the fish spear in very clear water”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Crescenzi's translator describes it as an iron tool with many points, each with a barb, mounted on a lance shaft and thrust at fish from a quiet boat.^[3][11] Tommaseo records the sense “Neptune's trident” in Salvini's translation of the Aeneid, and DEI dates the sense “trident” to the 18th century.^[11][8]

Derivatives came late: fiociniere, the fisherman who throws it (1772), fiocinare “to strike with the harpoon” (1846) and fiocinatore (1866).^[4][5] In modern use it is also the harpoon fired by a speargun.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1290 – Medieval Latin fossena is recorded at Torcello.^[4]
• 1312 – Fosina appears at Lio Mazor, near Venice.^[4][2]
• c. 1350 – Fiocina appears in the translation of Crescenzi.^[4]
• 1772 – Fiociniere is recorded.^[4]
• 1846 – Fiocinare is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fishing spear: a shaft ending in one or more barbed iron points, thrust or thrown at fish, squid, cuttlefish and octopus; a harpoon.^{[6][12][10][14][15][1]}
2. The harpoon fixed to the arrow of a speargun in underwater fishing.^[12][13]

Word family

• fiocinare
• fiocinatore
• fiociniere
• fiocinata
• fiocinino

Related words

• Latin fuscina

Usage notes

A fiocina snodata has movable wings at the sides that open in the wound and give a firmer hold.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1649
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
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. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)