indaco

Forms

indaco m (plural indachi)^[1] The TLIO records the old forms Old Italian indico, Old Italian indigo, Old Italian indago, Old Italian endego and Old Italian éndega.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin indicum (“indigo”), a learned word.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin noun is the neuter of indicus (“Indian”), used as a calque of Ancient Greek ἰνδικόν (indikón), the noun use of ἰνδικός (indikós, “Indian, of India”): the dye came from India.^[3][4][5] Treccani and Wiktionary take it from the phrase indicum folium “Indian leaf”.^[6][1] The plant and its dye were known to Pliny and Dioscorides.^[7]

Sabatini–Coletti explains the /a/ as the opening of the unstressed /i/ in a word stressed on the third syllable from the end.^[8] The form nearer the Latin, Old Italian indico, was still used by Florio in 1598, for the colour and for a stringed instrument.^[3]

French has the semi-popular Old French inde (12th century), while French indigo (1604) is a loan from Spanish.^[7] Spanish índigo and Portuguese índigo gave the French word and the English word indigo.^[4] German Endich comes from the Latin word.^[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Sienese letter of 1269, where the word names the blue dye used for cloth.^[2] DELI gives Florentine texts of 1299–1300, and Medieval Latin records from Viterbo (1237) and Venice (1246).^[3] Whether Dante's indaco (read indico by some) is a noun or an adjective meaning “Indian (wood)” is uncertain.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Indigo was a costly trade good: Sacchetti lists it among the eight buone endiche (staple goods) without which the world can hardly do, beside alum, cotton and pepper.^[3][10] Tommaseo records the saying Ch'è egli, indaco? (“what is it, indigo?”), said by a buyer who is given short measure, because indigo was once very dear.^[10]

The colour sense is in Fazio degli Uberti, who died before 1367, and the word was later given to one of the seven colours into which Newton divided the solar spectrum.^[3][7][10] The name of the plant followed in the 18th century.^[7] Until 1868 the dye was obtained from the leaves of plants of the genus Indigofera; it is now made mostly by synthesis.^[7][11]

Timeline

• 1237 – Medieval Latin records of the dye at Viterbo.^[3]
• 1246 – Medieval Latin record at Venice.^[3]
• 1269 – Indaco appears in a Sienese letter.^[2]
• 1299–1300 – The dye is named in Florentine texts.^[3][5]
• Before 1367 – Fazio degli Uberti uses indaco for the colour.^[3]
• 1598 – Florio still has the older form indico.^[3]
• 1700s – Indaco is used for the plant itself.^[7]
• 1917 – Indantrene is formed from indaco and antracene.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. indigo: a blue dye obtained from plants of the genus Indigofera or made synthetically, used to dye cloth.^{[5][12][8][13][11]}
2. A deep blue-violet colour; in physics, the colour of the spectrum between blue and violet.^{[5][12][8][13]}
3. (botany) The indigo plant, Indigofera tinctoria, a shrub grown for the dye in its leaves.^[5][12]

Adjective

1. (invariable, after the noun) Indigo-coloured: una giacca indaco.^{[5][12][8][13]}

Word family

• indantrene
• indacano
• indigotina

Related words

• indico
• French indigo
• Spanish índigo
• Latin indicus

Usage notes

The plural is indachi.^[8][13] Indaco bastardo is a shrub, Amorpha fruticosa, that grows wild along rivers in northern Italy, and the dye made from it.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
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. 1999
8. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli