lenticchia

Forms

lenticchia f (plural lenticchie)^[1] Old forms include lenticla, lentichia and linticchia, and northern lenteye and lentige.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lentīcula, a diminutive of lēns (“lentil”) with the same meaning, recorded from the 2nd century, as in Diocletian's price edict.^[3][4][5] Wiktionary starts from a syncopated Vulgar Latin *lenticla.^[1] The same word is French lentille, Occitan lentilha, Catalan llentia and Portuguese lentilha, while Spanish lenteja and northern Italian forms such as Mantuan lenteda go back to a form with a short /i/.^[4][6] Körting takes the variant lentiglia to be a loan from French.^[7]

De Vaan finds the likeness of the Latin word to Slavic and Germanic words for the lentil too great to be chance, but no common form can be reconstructed; like other farming words, it may come from a non-Indo-European language of Europe.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the TLIO is in a Pisan Contrasto between Christ and Satan of about 1300, for the plant and its seed.^[2] DELI's first record of the seed used as food is in the Italian translation of Crescenzi, before 1320.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th-century translation of Gregory the Great Esau “had sold his birthright for a bowl of lentils” (avea venduta la sua primogenitura per una scodella di lenticchie), the source of the phrase per un piatto di lenticchie, for a wretched price.^[3][9] The plant itself is called lenticchia in Cristoforo Landino's translation of Pliny, before 1498, where it alternates with lenti.^[3]

Old Italian also used the word for freckles, a sense that still holds up well, especially in Rome; it is found in many northern dialects and in French, Occitan, Catalan and Portuguese.^[2][3][6] Today it also names a small soup pasta.^[5][10]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – A Pisan Contrasto of Christ and Satan has the word.^[2]
• Before 1320 – The Italian Crescenzi uses lenticchia for the seed.^[3]
• 1300s – The translation of Gregory the Great tells of Esau's bowl of lentils.^[3]
• Before 1498 – Cristoforo Landino uses lenticchia for the plant.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. lentil: the round, flat edible seed, usually eaten dried and cooked: zuppa di lenticchie.^[5][11][10]
2. The leguminous plant that bears these seeds (Lens culinaris).^[5][10][12]
3. (usually plural) A small soup pasta shaped like lentils.^[5][10][13]
4. (colloquial) A freckle.^[5][10][13]

Word family

• lenticchioso

Related words

• lente
• lentiggine
• Latin lens
• French lentille

Usage notes

Per un piatto di lenticchie, “for a dish of lentils”, means for a price far below the value of what is given up, after Esau's sale of his birthright to Jacob.^[12][14] Lenticchia d'acqua is duckweed (Lemna).^[13][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 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 c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b 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. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli