legna

Forms

legna f (usually uncountable, plural (Tuscany) legne)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian legnia and Old Italian ligna.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ligna (“pieces of wood”), the neuter plural of the word that gave legno;^{[3][4][5][6][1]} Italian took the collective plural as a feminine singular.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} DEI places this plural in Italy and the western Romance area, with Sardinian linna in Sardinia.^[7] Nocentini lists Spanish leña, Portuguese lenha and the Sardinian word beside the outcomes of the singular, such as Old French lein (“boat”), Occitan lenh, Catalan lleny (“ship”) and Romanian lemn.^[4] DELI notes that the age of the Italian records takes all force from the 19th-century quarrel over whether the word was correct Italian.^[3]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *legno-.^[8] DELI and Nocentini take its first sense to be “wood gathered for the fire”, as against māteriēs (“building timber”), and derive it from legō (“to gather, choose”): wood as “that which is collected”.^[3][4][1] De Vaan finds that derivation from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”) as likely as Ritter's, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”), which would make it “wood lying about”.^[8] The change of ⟨-egn-⟩ to ⟨-ign-⟩ in Latin is regular.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the 13th century in a poem of Arrigo Testa (also given to Giacomo da Lentini): lo foco / che, finché sente legna, / infiamma e non ispegna (the fire which, as long as it has wood, blazes and does not go out).^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

Early writers used legna, legne and legni side by side, as Giordano da Pisa does in 1305–06.^[3] Dante has tagliare le legne for cutting wood for a funeral pyre in the Convivio, and Boccaccio's gardener went al bosco per le legne.^[9] Medieval Latin lignaria is recorded at Parma in 1255.^[7]

The figurative mettere legna al fuoco, to stir up quarrels, is found before 1292 in Bono Giamboni, and far legna, to gather firewood, in Boccaccio's Decameron.^[3] The storehouse for firewood, legnaia, appears as lignara in 1598 and as legnaia in 1605.^[3]

Today the word is felt as a collective and used mostly in the singular; the plural legne is Tuscan and literary.^[10][11] It stands against legname, timber for building.^[12]

Timeline

• 13th century – Arrigo Testa uses legna.^[3]
• 1255 – Medieval Latin lignaria is recorded at Parma.^[7]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses mettere legna al fuoco figuratively.^[3]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses legna, legne and legni.^[3]
• 1348–1353 – Far legna appears in Boccaccio.^[3]
• 1598 – Lignara “woodshed” is recorded;^[3] legnaia follows in 1605.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. firewood: pieces of trunk or branch cut for burning: Abbiamo comprato due quintali di legna per l'inverno.^{[5][13][14][12]}

Word family

• legnaia

Related words

• legno
• legname
• Latin lignum

Usage notes

Mettere or aggiungere legna al fuoco is to stir up quarrels or passions, and portare legna al bosco is to bring something where there is plenty already, to do something useless.^[11][12][15] Legna is also a literary or regional plural of legno.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2196
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. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli