focaia

Forms

focaia f (plural focaie)^[1] An older spelling is focaja.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin focāria, the feminine of focārius (“of the hearth”), used as a noun, from focus (“hearth”).^[3][4][1][5] Devoto explains the ending by the Tuscan change of ⟨-aria⟩ to ⟨-aia⟩.^[6] GRADIT and GDLI compare the Latin adjective focāris, which Isidore of Seville records in the phrase for the fire stone.^[5][7] Spanish hoguera and Portuguese fogueira come from the same Latin form.^[1]

The Latin noun first meant the hearth and later the fire itself.^[8][9] Its origin is uncertain.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Andrea Lancia's Florentine translation of the Aeneid (1316), always with pietra: a pebble of flint that gives sparks when it is struck or rubbed.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Isidore of Seville had already written that the common people called a spark-giving stone focarem petram.^[7] In Italian the adjective has stayed bound to pietra, and DELI dates the phrase to Boccaccio.^[3] Old Italian also has the plural focaie and focaje.^[2]

In mineralogy pietra focaia is a compact, opaque variety of chalcedony, brown, reddish, grey or blackish, also called selce piromaca.^[11][8] The word can stand alone as a feminine noun, la focaia.^[8][7] The phrases fucile a pietra focaia (flintlock gun) and pietrina focaia (lighter flint) are in GRADIT.^[5]

Timeline

• 1316 – Andrea Lancia uses pietra focaia in his translation of the Aeneid.^[2]
• 1362 – The date Zingarelli gives for the word.^[12]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses it.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Only in pietra focaia: flint, a hard siliceous stone that gives sparks when struck with steel: accese il fuoco battendo la pietra focaia.^{[3][12][4][1]}

Noun

1. (mineralogy) Flint, the same as pietra focaia, a compact variety of chalcedony.^[8][11]

Related words

• fuoco
• focolare
• fucile
• Latin focus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 186
7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 87
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli