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Etymology and origin of the Italian word gallo

gallo1 rooster

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
900s Glossario di Monza
Inherited from
Latin gallus
Ultimate origin
Latin gallus
Etymology tree of gallo1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin gallus
Italian gallo
Spanish gallo
From the same root · gallo1
Latin gallīna ← gallus

Pronunciation

Forms

gallo m (plural galli, feminine gallina)[1] Old forms include Old Italian gal, Old Italian gallu and Old Italian ghallo.[2]

Etymology

The word for the rooster is inherited from Latin gallus (“farmyard cock”).[3][4][5][1] It lives on throughout Italy and in western Romance: Occitan gal, Catalan gall, Spanish gallo and Old French jal, which French later gave up for French coq.[4][6][7] It passed from Latin into Albanian as gjel.[7]

The origin of the Latin word is disputed.[3][8] DELI calls it probably expressive.[3] Nocentini derives it from a call word and compares Old Norse kalla (“to call”), Welsh galw (“to call”) and Slavic verbs for “to speak”.[4] De Vaan also prefers a root Proto-Indo-European *glH- (“to call”), so that the cock would be “the caller”, though the double ⟨ll⟩ is hard to explain and the root may be onomatopoeic.[8][1]

Another view, discussed by DELI, Nocentini and DEI, makes the cock “the Gaulish bird”, the same word as Latin Gallus (“a Gaul”), since the Greeks also named the cock after foreign peoples, as “the Mede” and “the Persian”.[3][4][7] De Vaan objects that nothing suggests chickens were thought to come from Gaul.[8] DEI also considers a Mediterranean origin, comparing Ancient Greek κάλλαιον (kállaion, “cock's wattle”).[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Glossario di Monza, a glossary of the 10th century, for the domestic cock.[3][2][5] DEI's first Italian text is Uguccione da Lodi, early in the 13th century.[7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian texts made the cock a symbol: the bird that beats its wings before it crows, keeps watch and announces the morning, the one male among many hens, and an emblem of generosity.[2] An old proverb runs quella casa non mi piace dove gallina canta e gallo tace (“I don't like the house where the hen crows and the cock is silent”); another says that two cocks don't sit well in one henhouse.[2][10] Gallo di paradiso was a name of the hoopoe, and Gallo a constellation.[2]

The figurative vain man and ladies' man is behind fare il gallo and essere il gallo della Checca;[3][5] DELI traces the latter to popular print, a Barzelletta on the cock of Madonna Checca that Giulio Cesare Croce published at Bologna in 1592.[3][5] The gallo cedrone (capercaillie, 1798) is named for the citron colour of its feathers.[3] Peso gallo (bantamweight) adapts the English boxing term bantam weight, named after a small and combative fowl.[3][11] Vitaliano Brancati coined gallismo in 1946 for the cult of male sexual prowess.[3]

Timeline

  • 10th century – The Glossario di Monza has the first record.[3][2]
  • Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses the word.[7]
  • Before 1313 – Galletto “young cock” is recorded.[3]
  • 1592 – Giulio Cesare Croce publishes his Barzelletta on the cock of Madonna Checca.[3]
  • 1665 – Galletto is used for a wing nut.[3]
  • 1798 – Gallo cedrone is recorded.[3]
  • 1946 – Brancati coins gallismo.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. rooster, cock: the adult male of the domestic fowl, with a red comb and wattles, bright plumage, a long curved tail and spurs, known for crowing at dawn: Il gallo del vicino ci sveglia ogni mattina alle cinque.[5][12][13]
  2. A weathervane in the shape of a cock, on a bell tower or roof.[5][12][13]
  3. (figurative) A vain man who plays the ladies' man: fare il gallo.[5][12][11]
  4. (zoology) A bird of the genus Gallus; also a name of other birds, as in gallo cedrone (the capercaillie).[5][14][11]
  5. (ichthyology) The John Dory.[5]
  6. (boxing) bantamweight, in peso gallo.[5][13][14]

Word family

  • galletto
  • gallismo
  • galliformi
  • ingalluzzire
  • gallare
  • galloria

gallo2 Gaul, Gallic

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1252–1258 Storie de Troia e de Roma, Roman
Borrowed from
Latin Gallus
Ultimate origin
Latin Gallus

Pronunciation

Forms

gallo (feminine galla, masculine plural galli, feminine plural galle)[1]

Etymology

The word for the Gauls is borrowed from Latin Gallus (“a Gaul, Gallic”), a learned word.[3][5][1][15] DEI thinks the Latin name first meant the Celto-Ligurian peoples who were the first to meet the Romans, and considers a link with a Mediterranean word for “rock, fortress”, as in the names of the Galatians and the Gallaeci; it finds the proposed Celtic etymologies more doubtful.[7] DELI's note brings in Frankish *walha, the name the Franks gave the Romans, which grew out of Latin Volcae, the name of a Celtic tribe.[3]

From the 18th century onward the many references to things French produced a long series of derivatives of this word and of gallico, some lasting and some used by a single writer: Vittorio Alfieri coined gallicheria, gallicume and gallume.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Storie de Troia e de Roma, a Roman text of 1252–1258.[2] DELI's first example is Giovanni Villani (before 1348): Questa gente erano chiamati Galli, ovvero Gallici, perch'erano biondi (“These people were called Gauls, or Gallic, because they were fair-haired”).[3][15]

Semantic evolution

Besides the ancient people the word came to mean “French” in literary use: Ariosto writes of driving out i Galli, and Alfieri calls one of his tragedies gallo because he drew it from Racine.[15] Machiavelli punned on the two senses in La voce d'un Cappon tra tanti Galli (“The voice of one capon among so many cocks”), on Pier Capponi's words to Charles VIII.[10] Historians distinguish the Gallo bracato of Narbonese Gaul, the Gallo chiomato of the north and the Gallo togato of Cisalpine Gaul.[13]

As a first element gallo- makes compounds such as gallo-romano and gallomania, which Saverio Bettinelli coined in 1780.[7][3][16]

Timeline

  • 1252–1258 – The Storie de Troia e de Roma have the first record.[2]
  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses Galli and Gallici.[3]
  • 14th century – Gallico is recorded in the Italian translation of Livy.[3]
  • Before 1764 – Gallicismo is recorded.[3]
  • 1780 – Bettinelli coins gallomania.[3]
  • 1911 – Gallofobia is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of Gaul or the Gauls; Gallic.[5][11][13]
  2. (literary) French.[5][13][15]

Noun

  1. A Gaul, a native or inhabitant of Gaul: Vercingetorige guidò i Galli contro Roma.[5][13][11]

Word family

  • gallico
  • gallicismo
  • gallomania
  • gallofobia
  • gallofilia

Usage notes

Gallo “priest of Cybele” (before 1484) is Latin Gallus, from Ancient Greek γάλλος (gállos), perhaps from a Phrygian word for “eunuch”.[5][17][1] The old and literary gallo “joy, high spirits”, later “haughtiness” (rialzare il gallo), is a noun from gallare “to rejoice”.[15][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1754
  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. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  15. ^ 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
  16. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  17. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1755

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Gallo.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/gallo. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

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