galla

Forms

galla f (plural galle)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin galla (“gall-nut, oak apple”).^[2][3][4][1] The origin of the Latin word is unknown, and Nocentini finds no comparison for it.^[2][3] Devoto calls it a Mediterranean word.^[5] Wiktionary reports a link with Proto-Germanic *gallǭ (“bile”), if the first sense was “poison-sore”, and a root Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to form into a ball”).^[1] The same word is French galle, Occitan gala and Catalan gall, and Spanish agalla, from which Portuguese galha was taken.^[3][6][7]

DELI explains some later senses by the lightness of the gall and others by its shape.^[2] Nocentini traces a galla “afloat” to the light shell the word came to name: something floats on the water like a gall, and galleggiare was formed from the phrase.^[3] The GDLI thinks the phrase more likely a deverbal noun from the old verb gallare “to float”, itself made from this noun.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Bono Giamboni's Orosio, a Florentine text written before 1292.^[9] DELI first dates the botanical sense, the gall, in the Italian Milione of Marco Polo (14th century) and in Bencivenni in 1310; 13th-century Medieval Latin documents from Emilia already have the word.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used galla for the oak gall and the tannin-rich powder made from it, for unguents and dyes, and conciare a galla meant to tan hides with it.^[9] The word also named any round growth, the acorn, and a small pill or pastille.^[9][4] Dante's swine are più degni di galle (“worthier of acorns”), and in Boccaccio someone buys a pound of fine galle, pills.^[4]

Dante used the verb gallare “to float”, which also took the sense “to be proud”.^[2] By 1427 San Bernardino da Siena used galla for a very light person or thing.^[2] A blister on the skin is recorded from 1675, when Frugoni punned that the court sells its gale (finery) and the courtesans their galle.^[2] Gallic acid (acido gallico, 1828) is named after the gall.^[2] The diminutives gallozza and gallozzola date from the 14th century;^[3][10] gallozzola also names the bubble a raindrop makes.^[3][10]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni's Orosio has the first record.^[9]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses gallare “to float”.^[2]
• 1310 – Bencivenni uses galla for the plant gall.^[2]
• 14th century – Gallozza and gallozzola are recorded.^[3]
• 1427 – San Bernardino uses it for a very light person or thing.^[2]
• 1675 – Frugoni uses it for a blister.^[2]
• 1828 – Gallico “of gall” is recorded in chemistry.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A gall: a swelling on the leaves, branches or roots of a plant caused by parasites;^[4][11][12] noce di galla, the oak gall, is used for its tannin in dyeing and ink-making.^[4][11][12]
2. (figurative, uncommon) A very light person or thing; a fickle person.^[4][12][13]
3. (medicine) A small blister on the skin, especially from a burn.^[4][11]
4. (veterinary) A soft swelling on a horse's leg, the same as molletta.^[11][14]
5. (archaic, literary) An acorn; a pill shaped like an acorn.^[4][15]
6. In a galla: afloat, on the surface of a liquid;^[11][14][12] stare a galla “to float”, venire a galla “to come to light”, tornare a galla “to resurface”, tenersi a galla “to keep afloat, get by”.^[11][14][12]

Word family

• galleggiare
• gallozza
• gallozzola
• gallare
• aggallare

Related words

• Latin galla
• French galle

Usage notes

Galla is also the name of the Galla or Oromo people of East Africa and their language, an ethnonym recorded in Italian from 1888.^[4][11] It is also the feminine of the adjective gallo “Gaulish”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1752
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 478
11. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse