lendine

Forms

lendine m (plural lendini)^[1] The word is masculine, less often feminine.^[2][3][4] Old Italian also has lendene.^[5] Northern dialects have forms with an initial ⟨g-⟩, such as Venetian géndena.^[6][7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin lendinem, the Late Latin accusative that replaced classical lēns (“nit”) (stem ⟨lend-⟩).^[8][9][2][1] The new stem in ⟨-in-⟩ is recorded in Marcellus Empiricus and Theodorus Priscianus.^[7][1] The classical word was feminine; from the 4th century, in the grammarian Charisius, it is also masculine, and the Italian dialects still waver between the two genders.^[8]

The Late Latin form is pan-Romance: Sardinian léndine, Romanian lindină, Catalan llemena, Spanish liendre and Portuguese lêndea.^[9][10] The forms French lente and Occitan lende point to Vulgar Latin *lendĭtem.^[9][7] The classical form survives only in the north of France, in Walloon and Picard.^[8][7]

The northern Italian forms with ⟨g-⟩ have been explained as a blend with glans (“acorn”), from the round shape of the egg, but Prati thinks some of them need another explanation.^[6][7]

The Latin word has cognates across Indo-European, among them Ancient Greek κονίς (konís), Lithuanian glinda, Old High German hniz and the English word nit, but they differ so much at the beginning of the word that no single Proto-Indo-European form can be set up.^[9][11][12] De Vaan tentatively reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *dḱ(o)n-i-d-.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, with the sense “louse egg”: man, he says, unlike the trees, produces from himself lendini e pidocchi e lombrichi (“nits, lice and worms”).^[8][13]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word served as an image of something worthless: Dino Compagni's chronicle (1310–1312) scorns the daring of the Florentines, who with their dieci lendini (“ten nits”, a handful of nobodies) challenge every lord.^[5][14] The Old Italian Crescenzi recommends beet against nits and other dirt of the head.^[13][14]

Later writers use the word for the eggs of lice and fleas in travel accounts and natural history, from Ramusio to Redi.^[13][14] Derivatives include lendinoso “full of nits” (1534, Pietro Aretino) and, in Lucca, lendinino for a puny, rather silly boy.^[8][6] In slang lendinosa has meant the beard.^[7]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses lendini.^[8]
• 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses lendini figuratively for worthless people.^[5]
• 1534 – Lendinoso is first recorded, in Pietro Aretino.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) A nit, the egg of a louse, which sticks to the hair: La maestra ha trovato delle lendini tra i capelli di un bambino.^[2][3][4][1]

Word family

• lendinoso

Related words

• pidocchio
• Latin lens

Usage notes

Tommaseo records the saying spaccar la lendine per cavar il pidocchio (“to split the nit to get out the louse”), said of a mean, niggling person.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 585
7. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2200
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET