lettiga

Forms

lettiga f (plural lettighe)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian lettica and Old Italian letica.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lectīca (“litter”), spread from the northern dialects, where the /k/ of the suffix was early voiced to /g/.^[4][5][6][7] The Latin word is formed on lectus (“bed”) with the suffix -īca.^[8][1][9]

The same word gave Old Occitan lechiga and Old Spanish lechiga.^[10][9][7] De Vaan derives lectus from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie down”), perhaps through a noun meaning “the lying”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Cavalca's Vite dei santi padri, before 1342, where a woman says she has not travelled in carts or in lettighe like vain women: a covered portable bed carried on poles.^[4][2][12]

Semantic evolution

The litter, carried by bearers or by two mules, was used from Roman times until the 18th century; in Emilian and Venetian documents of the 14th and 15th centuries lectica means “bedstead”.^[3][7] Lettighiere, the litter bearer, is recorded before 1589 in Salviati;^[4][7] DELI and DEI take it as an Italian formation, not a continuation of Latin lectīcārius.^[4][7]

In the 20th century the word was applied to a stretcher for the sick and wounded, recorded in 1933, and lettighiere became a stretcher-bearer.^[4] English borrowed lettiga in 1805, and German in 1876.^[13]

Timeline

• Before 1342 – Cavalca uses the word.^[4][2]
• 14th–15th century – Emilian and Venetian documents use lectica for a bedstead.^[7]
• Before 1589 – Salviati has lettighiere.^[4]
• 1805 – English lettiga is recorded.^[13]
• 1933 – The sense “stretcher” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A litter: a portable bed, often with a canopy, carried on poles by bearers or drawn by horses or mules, once used for people of rank or the sick.^[14][15][16]
2. A stretcher: a frame for carrying the sick or injured, sometimes on wheels or in a vehicle: Il ferito fu portato via in lettiga.^[14][15][6]

Word family

• lettighiere
• autolettiga

Related words

• letto
• Latin lectica

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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, 990
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2212
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana