folaga

Forms

folaga f (plural folaghe)^[1] Old and dialect forms include folica, foliga, folega and follega.^[2][3] The older Italian form folca is recorded before 1440.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fulica (“coot”).^[4][5][6][1] DEI considers the Italian form northern in origin.^[7] Latin also had a variant fulix.^[7][8] Nocentini gives a variant fulicem, the source of Catalan fotja, which passed into Spanish foja.^[5]

The Latin word is compared with Old High German belihha, modern German Belche “coot”, and with Ancient Greek φαλαρίς (phalarís), both also names of the coot.^[5][9][1] De Vaan rejects the link with the Germanic word: Latin ⟨ful-⟩ can only continue ⟨*-ol-⟩, and the suffixes do not match.^[8] He leaves the origin of the Latin bird name unknown.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Florentine translation of the Tesoro from the late 13th century, naming the marsh bird.^[3] DELI starts from Medieval Latin folca at Orvieto in 1334 and the Italian folca of Simone Prudenzani, an Orvietan who died before 1440, and dates folaga itself to Luigi Alamanni in 1546.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The forms varied for centuries: GDLI quotes foleghe from Trissino, folice from Garzoni, foliche from Boccalini and Nievo, and folighe from Marino, beside folaghe in Alamanni, Caro, Pascoli and Montale.^[2] The name reached the south too, as Sicilian foggia and forgia.^[7]

Zingarelli records folaga di canneto (coot of the reed bed) for a person who lives an obscure, quiet life.^[10] GDLI also lists the horned coot and the crested coot, and folaga verdipiede for the moorhen.^[2]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Florentine translation of the Tesoro names the bird.^[3]
• 1334 – Medieval Latin folca is recorded at Orvieto.^[4]
• Before 1440 – Simone Prudenzani uses folca.^[4]
• 1546 – Luigi Alamanni uses folaga.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) The coot (Fulica atra), a marsh bird of the rail family about the size of a duck, with dark grey plumage and a white bill that widens into a horny shield on the forehead.^{[6][11][12][1]}
2. Any bird of the genus Fulica.^[6]

Word family

• folaghetta

Related words

• Latin fulica

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1677
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)