lentiggine

Forms

lentiggine f (plural lentiggini)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian letiggine, Old Italian lentigine, Old Italian litigine and Old Italian lintigine.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lentīgō (“freckle”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin word was formed on lēns (“lentil”) with the suffix -īgō, after the shape and colour of the spots.^[4][6][7][1] Zingarelli classes the Italian word as learned.^[8]

DELI finds the Latin word continued only in Italy; the DEI adds a Calabrian form and Engadine lantigna, and notes that Emilian lentécia and the Gallo-Romance dialects replaced it with a form of lenticula.^[4][9][10] Latin also had the adjective lentīginōsus, the source of lentigginoso.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's earliest records are an Old Florentine translation of the Antidotarium Nicolai from the end of the 13th century and Giordano da Pisa's Lenten sermons;^[2][4][6] DELI and GRADIT date Giordano's letiggine to 1305.^[2][4][6] The sense was a small brown spot on the skin.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Old medical texts used the word also for a skin disorder with many such spots, and for impetigine.^[2] A book on women's adornments offered an ointment a tutte bollicole e litiggini della faccia (“for all pimples and freckles of the face”), and Pietro de' Crescenzi recommended bitter almonds for them.^[11][3] The spelling lentigine appears in Cavalca before 1342, and lentiggine only in Oudin's dictionary of 1640.^[4]

Medicine now distinguishes lentiggine, a spot that does not change with sunlight, from efelide, while everyday Italian uses the two as synonyms;^{[12][8][6][11]} lentiggine maligna is a malignant change of such a spot.^{[12][8][6][11]}

Timeline

• 1305 – Giordano da Pisa uses letiggine.^[4][6]
• Before 1315 – Bonvesin de la Riva has the adjective lentigioso.^[4]
• Before 1327 – Cecco d'Ascoli uses lentigginoso.^[4]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca writes lentigine.^[4]
• 1640 – The spelling lentiggine appears in Oudin.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A freckle, a small yellowish-brown spot on the skin, usually in the plural and typical of fair or red-haired people: Ha il naso coperto di lentiggini.^{[6][13][14][15]}
2. (medicine) A lentigo: a small brown or black spot, flat or slightly raised, on the face, neck or trunk.^[6][8][12]

Word family

• lentigginoso
• lentigginato

Related words

• lente
• lenticchia
• efelide
• Latin lens

Usage notes

Prati records crusca as the popular word for freckles, and sémola at Rome.^[16]

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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2202
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
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
16. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 586