leccio

Forms

leccio m (plural lecci)^[1] Old Italian forms include lecio, lleccio and lizu.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin īliceus (“of the holm oak”), an adjective used for the tree itself with the noun for “oak” understood.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin adjective is formed from īlex (“holm oak”), which also gave Italian elce.^[4][6][7] The word lost its first syllable (aphaeresis) on the way into Italian.^[7]

The word is Tuscan and central Italian.^[8][9] Meyer-Lübke records the Latin adjective's outcomes only in Italian and in a few southern and Sardinian dialects.^[10][11] The collective lecceto “holm-oak wood”, although probably formed in Italian, has a model in Latin īlicētum.^[3]

De Vaan finds no etymology for the Latin noun.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form lecio in a Pisan document of the first half of the 12th century, naming the tree.^[2][7] Giovanni Villani, who died in 1348, has leccio in his chronicle: Trovaro sotto un leccio una troia, bianca con trenta porcellini bianchi (“under a holm oak they found a white sow with thirty white piglets”).^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named both the evergreen oak and, by extension, its wood;^[3][2] DELI dates the sense “wood of the holm oak” to 1550, in Cosimo Bartoli.^[3][2] The Old Italian translation of Crescenzi already distinguishes a leccio minore, and Landino's translation of Pliny counts two kinds of holm oak, whose leaves in Italy are much like the olive's.^[13]

Tommaseo records a Tuscan proverb Il leccio non fa ulive and notes that poets also call the tree elice and elce.^[14] Modern dictionaries describe it as a tree of the Mediterranean scrub, up to about 25 metres tall, with leathery leaves and acorns, planted for shade and valued for its hard wood.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1100–1150 – The form lecio appears in a Pisan document.^[2]
• 1280 – Leccieto “holm-oak wood” is recorded in a statute of Montagutolo.^[3]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses leccio.^[3]
• Before 1422 – The form lecceto appears in Filippo degli Agazzari.^[3]
• 1550 – Cosimo Bartoli uses the word for the wood of the tree.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The holm oak (Quercus ilex), an evergreen oak of the Mediterranean scrub with leathery leaves and acorns: Ci riposammo all'ombra di un vecchio leccio.^{[7][16][17][1]}
2. The hard, compact wood of this tree, used in carpentry.^[7][17][5]

Word family

• lecceto
• lecceta

Related words

• elce
• ilice
• Latin ilex

Usage notes

In literary language the tree is also called elce or ilice.^[17][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2191
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8, 877
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse