fringuello

Forms

fringuello m (plural fringuelli, diminutive fringuellino or fringuellétto)^[1] The Tuscan variant is filunguello, also written filinguello.^[2][1][3] Dialect forms include frenguello and franguello.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fringuillus (“finch”), a variant of the commoner fringilla.^[5][6][1] DELI and Zingarelli call the masculine form Late Latin;^{[7][8][9][10]} DEI finds it in Martial, Polemius Silvius and the glosses.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The word is mainly Italian: Neapolitan frongüle, and in the north the back-formation Emilian frangol, of Cremona, Piacenza and Parma.^[3][9] Crossed with calandria, it gave Spanish fringalanda (“lark”).^[3][9]

The Latin word is probably imitative of the bird's call, and belongs with friguttiō (“to chirp”) and fritinniō (“to twitter”).^[5][10] It is compared with Ancient Greek φρυγίλος (phrugílos), the name of a small bird.^{[5][9][10][11]} Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *bʰereg- (“to make a noise”);^[1][12] Devoto found no Indo-European connection.^[1][12] DELI and GRADIT call its origin uncertain.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Boccaccio, 1340–1342, for the small songbird with a brown back and reddish breast.^[7] The TLIO has the form frenguello in a Latin–Eugubine glossary of the second half of the 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The finch has long been the model of a singer: cantare come un fringuello is to sing in a clear, happy voice.^[6][13][8] Bird-catchers gave finches different names according to their song, and Tommaseo lists the blinded finch, blinded so that it would sing better.^[14][14][2]

The figurative sense, a naive person who is easily fooled, is recorded in Frugoni, who writes of snaring fluttering finches.^[2][6] Other species took the name in compounds such as fringuello alpino (the snowfinch) and fringuello marino.^[15][6] The verb sfringuellare “to chatter” dates from the 17th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 1340–1342 – Boccaccio uses fringuello.^[7]
• Second half of the 14th century – Frenguello in a Latin–Eugubine glossary.^[4]
• 17th century – Sfringuellare is formed.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) The common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), a songbird of fields and woods; the male has a blue-grey head and a reddish breast.^[6][13][15]
2. A finch of another species, in compounds: fringuello alpino.^[15][6][1]
3. (figurative) A naive person, easily taken in.^[6][2]

Word family

• fringuellino
• fringuelletto
• sfringuellare
• fringuellaia

Related words

• filunguello
• frosone
• frinire
• Latin fringilla

Usage notes

Cantare come un fringuello means to sing clearly and merrily.^[6][13][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1718
10. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 191
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)