liccio

Forms

liccio m (plural licci)^[1] Old Italian texts have the plurals licci and licce and the form lizu.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin līcium (“thread, cord; heddle”), a technical word of obscure origin that was carried on in popular speech in Italy and beyond.^[3][4][1] The doubled ⟨cc⟩ is the regular outcome of a consonant before /j/ after the stress.^[5]

The same word is French lisse, Occitan lisa, Catalan llis, Spanish lizo, Portuguese liço, Sardinian littu and Romanian iță.^[4][6] The Latin word, recorded since the Twelve Tables, has the compounds bilīx (“with a double thread”) and trilīx (“with a triple thread”).^[7] De Vaan finds no Indo-European etymology for it.^[7] Wiktionary suggests a loan from a non-Indo-European language.^[1] Isidore of Seville connected it with ligō (“to bind”), a guess.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin of Ravenna has the word in 1295.^[3] The first Italian record is in the additions of 1298–1309 to the Statutes of the Wool Guild of Siena, which require weavers to use the harness of their own loom.^[3][2][8] Cecco Angiolieri, before 1313, speaks of un fil di liccio, a thread of the harness.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for the set of twisted threads in a wooden or metal frame that lifts the warp threads to open the shed for the shuttle, and for one metal thread of a heddle.^[2] An older sense, a thread or cord of several strands, is now uncommon.^[9][10][11]

The tapestry trade distinguishes alto liccio and basso liccio, looms with the warp vertical or horizontal.^[8][12] The word licciolo, the small bar that holds the heddles, is recorded in 1957, with an older licciuole in Carena in 1853.^[3]

Timeline

• 1295 – The word is recorded in Medieval Latin at Ravenna.^[3]
• 1298–1309 – The Statutes of the Wool Guild of Siena use liccio.^[3][2]
• Before 1313 – Cecco Angiolieri writes un fil di liccio.^[3]
• 1797 – Allicciare is recorded.^[4]
• 1853 – Carena records licciuole.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (weaving) The heddle or harness of a loom, which raises and lowers the warp threads so that the shuttle can pass.^{[10][13][11][14]}
2. (uncommon) A thread, cord or ribbon.^[10][11][15]

Word family

• licciolo
• allicciare
• licceruolo
• licciaio
• licciare
• traliccio

Related words

• Latin līcium
• French lisse

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 i 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
10. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
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. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli