linea

Forms

linea f (plural linee, diminutive lineétta or (uncommon) lineìna)^[1] An old form is Old Italian linia.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin līnea (“linen thread, string; line”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin noun was the feminine of the adjective līneus (“of flax, linen”) used on its own for a thread of linen, from līnum (“flax”).^[3][6][7] De Vaan compares Ancient Greek λίνον (línon, “linen”) and the Baltic and Slavic words for flax, but because the forms cannot be brought back to one Indo-European shape he thinks the word was probably borrowed from another language.^[7]

The old meaning “cord” still shows in a 15th-century Italian text, and a Ravenna papyrus of 625 already uses the Latin word for kinship.^[3] Italian took the word from written Latin, but the popular form survives in verbs such as tralignare and allignare, from the Pistoian form ligna.^[3][8][4] In French, Occitan and Catalan the word is inherited: French ligne, Old Occitan linha, Catalan llinya, while Spanish línea is learned like the Italian word.^[9][4]

Many modern uses, such as the phrases for a course of conduct and for the front line and the military and railway senses, copy the French word.^[3][8] The Italian phrase for a hotline translates English hot line.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo's Composizione del mondo of 1282, in the geometrical sense of a figure traced by a moving point.^[3][5] Dante's Convivio (1304–1308) says that “the crooked line never joins the straight one” except at a point (la torta linea con la diritta non si congiunge mai).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Already in the 14th century the word served for descent within a family, in Giovanni Villani before 1348, and in 1314 Francesco da Barberino glossed it in Latin as meaning “rule” in Italian.^[3] Jacopo Passavanti in 1354 called the creases of the palm lineamenti, and linee della mano is recorded from 1524.^[3] From the 16th century it was used for the outline of the face and body (Castiglione, before 1529) and for the thread of a story.^[3]

The military sense, the front of an army drawn up for battle, appears before 1680 with Raimondo Montecuccoli, and the modern sense “course of conduct, policy” in 1713.^[3] The 19th century added telegraph lines (1821), routes of public transport (1869) and the printed line of type (1840), and the 20th century electric lines (1914), the cut of a dress and the tenths of a degree on a clinical thermometer.^[3] The phrases conservare and perdere la linea “to keep” and “to lose one's figure” belong to the 20th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses linea in geometry.^[3][5]
• 1304–1308 – Dante writes of the crooked and the straight line in the Convivio.^[3]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for a line of descent.^[3]
• 1524 – Linee della mano are recorded.^[3]
• Before 1680 – Montecuccoli uses it for the battle front.^[3]
• 1713 – Pier Jacopo Martello uses it for a course of conduct.^[3]
• 1821 – A telegraph line is mentioned in the Milanese press.^[3]
• 1869 – The sense “public transport route” appears.^[3]
• 1965 – The English hot line is adopted, later rendered linea calda.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A line drawn or cut on a surface: Traccia una linea sotto il titolo.^[5][10][11]
2. (geometry) A figure that extends in length only, such as the path of a moving point.^[5][6][12]
3. (sports) A line marking the edge or the parts of a playing field.^[5][10]
4. Each of the creases of the palm, read in palmistry.^[5][11]
5. The dash of the Morse code.^[5][10][1]
6. Each tenth of a degree on a clinical thermometer: avere qualche linea di febbre.^[5][12]
7. Outline, profile; a person's figure: Da quando corre ha ritrovato la linea.^[5][8]
8. (military) The front of troops drawn up for battle.^[3]
9. A line carrying electricity or telephone signals: La linea è caduta mentre parlavamo.^[3][8]
10. The route of a bus, train or airline service.^[3]
11. A course of conduct or policy: la linea del partito.^[3][8]
12. A line of descent in a family.^[3]

Word family

• lineamento
• lineare
• linearità
• lineetta
• alinea
• allineare
• allineamento
• delineare
• interlinea
• interlineare
• sterlineare
• sottolineare
• sottolineatura
• tralignare
• tralignamento

Related words

• autolinea
• capolinea
• dislignare
• guardalinee
• lignaggio
• lino
• Latin linea
• French ligne

Usage notes

Common phrases include in linea d'aria “as the crow flies”, a grandi linee “in broad outline” and in linea di massima “in principle”.^[11][13][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
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 d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2236
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli