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linea

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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