fucile

Forms

fucile m (plural fucili)^[1] The old form is Old Italian focile, beside Old Italian fucile, Old Italian fugile and the plural Old Italian fuchili.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *focīlis, short for a phrase meaning “fire stone”, with Latin petra (“stone”) understood.^[4][3][1] Nocentini supplies aciārium (“steel”) as the noun instead, so that the phrase meant “fire steel”.^[5] The adjective is a derivative of fŏcus (“hearth; fire”).^[4][5][1] The GDLI calls the word semi-learned,^[6] and Devoto thought it was influenced by fucina (“forge”).^[7]

The sense “gun” came about by ellipsis, from the name of an archibugio (“arquebus”) fired by a steel striking a flint.^[4][5][8] The same Late Latin adjective gave French fusil, which GDLI records from the 13th century, after the earlier Old French foisil and Old French fuisil of the 12th.^[6] From French come Spanish fusil and Portuguese fuzil, the Portuguese word keeping the old sense “steel for striking fire”.^[5] DEI, on the other hand, takes the French firearm word to be the Italian one passed on, with the derivatives French fusilier (1589) and fusiller (1732).^[9][4] Friulian fusîl and Piedmontese fusil are related.^[1]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain.^[10][1] De Vaan rejects a link with Latin fax (“torch”) on formal grounds, and finds Hamp's derivation from a root meaning “to burn” difficult for its chronology.^[10] Wiktionary notes the usual comparison with Old Armenian բոց (bocʻ, “flame”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the sermons of Giordano da Pisa (1309), where the word names the steel struck against a flint to make sparks, the same thing as an acciarino.^[2] DELI's first record of the old form focile is Dante's Inferno (14.39), where the burning sand catches fire com'esca / sotto il focile, “like tinder under the steel”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Until the 16th century the word meant only the fire steel, and Boccaccio's commentary on Dante explained it as a steel tool for making sparks fly from the stones “we call focaie”.^[6][11] The firearm sense comes from archibugio a fucile, the flintlock arquebus.^[4][5] Benvenuto Cellini (before 1571) used it for the steel piece fixed to old arquebuses and pistols, against which the flint held in the cock struck and fired the charge.^[4][12] The firearm itself is recorded from 1630 in Nocentini and before 1680 in Raimondo Montecuccoli in DELI.^[5][4]

The military vocabulary of the 17th and 18th centuries grew from it: fuciliere, a soldier armed with a gun, in 1655, and fucilata, a gunshot, in 1744.^[4] The verb fucilare, “to execute by shooting”, appears in 1792, at first called a military neologism, and fucilazione in 1797;^[4] DELI notes that a dictionary of 1771 still rendered French fusiller with archibugiare.^[4] By metonymy fucile is also a soldier or a marksman, as in a Sabatini example where an uncle is an excellent shot.^[3][13][12] The old sense “fire steel” is now obsolete.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 1309 – Giordano da Pisa uses fucile for the fire steel.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the form focile.^[4]
• Before 1571 – Benvenuto Cellini uses it for the firing piece of an arquebus.^[4]
• 1630 – The sense “firearm” is recorded.^[5]
• 1655 – Fuciliere “rifleman” is recorded.^[4]
• Before 1680 – Raimondo Montecuccoli uses the word for the gun.^[4]
• 1744 – Fucilata “gunshot” is recorded.^[4]
• 1792 – Fucilare “to execute by firing squad” is recorded.^[4]
• 1797 – Fucilazione appears in a patriotic newspaper.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rifle or shotgun: a portable firearm with a long steel barrel fixed to a stock that rests against the shoulder: Il cacciatore puliva il fucile prima di uscire.^[3][8][13]
2. (by extension) A weapon of similar shape that is not a firearm, such as an air gun or a spear gun for underwater fishing.^[13][14][12]
3. (by metonymy) A soldier armed with a rifle; a marksman: Era il miglior fucile del reggimento.^[3][12][15]
4. (obsolete) A fire steel, an acciarino.^[3][8][2]

Word family

• fucilare
• fucilata
• fucilazione
• fucileria
• fuciliere

Related words

• fuoco
• focaccia
• French fusil
• Latin focus

Usage notes

DEI lists a second, anatomical fucile of the 14th to 17th centuries, the same as focile, the old name of a bone of the forearm or the leg.^[9] Common phrases include fucile da caccia (hunting gun), fucile a pompa (pump-action shotgun) and fucile subacqueo (spear gun).^[3][12]

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 e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 193
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. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1728
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli