inguine

Forms

inguine m (plural inguini)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin inguen (“swelling; groin”), remade on the stem of its oblique cases with the ending of the Italian nouns from Latin consonant stems.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary leaves open whether it is a direct borrowing or a Latinised form of an older word.^[1]

Nocentini starts from a Vulgar Latin inguĭne(m), which lives on in popular words elsewhere: French aine, Occitan lengue and Catalan lengue, and Spanish ingle.^[5][6] Körting notes that the Occitan form has the article grown onto it.^[7] The Latin noun was mostly used in the plural, from which Late Latin formed a feminine.^[8] The popular Italian words for the groin are anguinaia and anguinaglia;^[9][6] Meyer-Lübke derives the latter from a derivative of the Latin noun.^[9][6]

The first meaning of the Latin word was “swelling, tumour”;^[2][5][10] “groin” comes from swellings of the glands there.^[2][5][10] It is compared with Ancient Greek ἀδήν (adḗn, “gland”) and Old Norse ökkvinn (“swollen”).^[5][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *n̥gʷen- and an n-stem noun Proto-Indo-European *n̥gʷ-ēn “the naked one”, derived from the root of nūdus; he would set the Germanic words aside, since they mean “swelling”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the word to the 14th century, with records in the Tuscan Bible translation and in Guglielmo.^[2] The TLIO's record in the Bible is anatomical: the front part of the body where the trunk joins the legs.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Inguine has kept its anatomical meaning, the region between the lower abdomen and the top of the thigh.^[12][13] An old book on illnesses describes swellings nell'inguine, cioè fra la coscia e 'l corpo (“in the groin, that is between the thigh and the body”).^[14]

The adjective inguinale was already Latin, Latin inguinālis; in Italian it is recorded from 1574.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 14th century – First records, in the Bible translation and in Guglielmo.^[2][11]
• 1574 – Inguinale is recorded in G. A. Della Croce.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The groin: the part of the body where the lower addome meets the thighs.^{[12][15][3][13]}

Word family

• inguinale

Related words

• anguinaia
• anguinaglia
• Latin inguen

Usage notes

Tommaseo gives anguinaglia and anguinaia as other words for the same part of the body.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2034
9. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 560
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier