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lonza

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word lonza

lonza1 medieval wild cat

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1280 before 1280, Pallamidesse Bellindote
Inherited from
Latin *luncea
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek λύγξ

Pronunciation

  • /ˈlon.t͡sa/[1]

Forms

lonza f (plural lonze)[1] Old forms include Old Italian leonza, Old Italian lonça and Old Italian loncia.[2] The forms leonza and onza are given as alternatives.[1]

Etymology

The word for the medieval wild cat is inherited from Vulgar Latin *luncea, a popular adjective formed on Latin lynx (“lynx”).[3][4][5][1] The Latin word was taken from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx).[1][6] Learned lince continues the same Latin noun, so the two words are doublets.[1]

The same formation is French once, Old Spanish onça and Portuguese onça.[4][7] The route between the languages is disputed.[8][9] DEI thinks the Italian word probably came through once (also ⟨lonce⟩ in the 13th century), from which the Spanish and Portuguese words also come.[8] Meyer-Lübke saw the movement the other way: the Italian word went into French, and its ⟨z⟩ shows that the Romance form began in Italy as a popular adoption of the Greek word.[9] Devoto starts from a Latin *lunx, an old adaptation of the Greek noun.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine poem of Pallamidesse Bellindote, before 1280.[2] DELI dates the word to the 13th century, in Rustico di Filippo, the Detto del gatto lupesco and the Proverbia super natura feminarum.[3] It names a fierce animal that nobody has identified, slender and with a spotted coat like the leopard's.[2]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts the animal is often paired with the leopard, and one account makes it the offspring of a lioness crossed with a leopard.[2] Dante's lonza leggiera e presta molto (“a lonza light and very swift”), with its spotted pelt, is the first of the three beasts in the dark wood of the Inferno, most often read as lust or envy.[11][12] Boccaccio, Luca Pulci and Luigi Pulci kept the word in poetry.[13]

Modern zoology has reused it as a name for two real cats, the snow leopard or irbis of central Asia and the jaguar of the Americas.[12][1] In Siena lonza also meant a wolfish hunger.[8][9] German took the word from Italian or French as Lunze, recorded as loncza in 1477.[14]

Timeline

  • Before 1280 – Pallamidesse Bellindote uses lonza in Florence.[2]
  • 1300s – Dante places the lonza at the start of the Inferno.[11][15]
  • 1477 – German loncza is recorded.[14]
  • 1800s – The word is applied to the irbis and other big cats.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (literary, historical) A fierce feline of medieval writers, not clearly identified, perhaps a lynx, leopard or cheetah.[5][16][17]
  2. (zoology, uncommon) A name for the snow leopard (irbis) and for the jaguar.[12][5][1]

lonza2 loin

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1200 Uguccione da Lodi
Borrowed from
Old French longe
Ultimate origin
Latin lumbus

Pronunciation

  • /ˈlon.t͡sa/[1]

Forms

lonza f (plural lonze)[1] Old forms include Old Italian lonça and Old Italian lonçe.[2] An older variant is longia, and a masculine lonzo is also found.[13]

Etymology

The word for the cut of meat is borrowed from Old French longe, which DELI, Nocentini and GRADIT derive from Vulgar Latin *lumbea, an adjective formed on Latin lumbus (“loin”).[3][4][5][1] The Latin step is less certain than the French one: Devoto–Oli and Treccani call it probable, Zingarelli says the French word's origin is debated, and the GDLI calls it uncertain.[16][12][18][11] GRADIT dates the French word to about 1165.[5] Meyer-Lübke, by contrast, filed it under Latin longus (“long”) and saw the Italian word as coming through Old Occitan lonza.[9]

The French word is also the source of Spanish lonja, and an Old French variant loigne gave English loin.[4][15] Inherited lombo continues the Latin noun directly.[4] Zaccaria reports that Diez derived the Tuscan sense of scraps left on the hide from an Old High German word for lard rather than from the French noun.[19]

Earliest recorded meaning

Uguccione da Lodi, in Cremonese verse of about 1200, has bele lonçe rostie, “fine roast loins”.[3][2] The sense is the meat around the loins of a slaughtered animal.[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante's verse mocks la lonza del castrone, the loin of a wether, and Maestro Martino advises roasting the veal loin.[13] A bull of Pope Alexander III of 1179 already has lonza for “loin”.[20]

The cut a lonza names now changes with the region: in the north it is the loin, especially of pork, in Umbria the meat of the pig's neck, and in Tuscany the plural lonze are the ox's cheeks, lips and tail stewed together.[12][16] The cured sausage of boned pork loin is called lonzo by F. D. Guerrazzi in 1864 and lonza in 1925.[3] In Tuscany the word also meant the fleshy ends of head and legs that stay on the hide when an animal is skinned.[8][21] A white grape with long bunches is uva lonza from 1729.[8][21]

Timeline

  • 1179 – A bull of Alexander III has lonza “loin”.[20]
  • About 1200 – Uguccione da Lodi writes of bele lonçe rostie.[3][2]
  • 1500s – Ariosto mentions lonza di vitella.[11][15]
  • 1729 – P. A. Micheli names a grape variety lonza.[8]
  • 1864 – F. D. Guerrazzi uses lonzo for the cured pork loin.[3]
  • 1925 – A. G. Cagna uses lonza for the same product.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (northern Italy) The loin of a slaughtered animal, especially of pork: Domenica cuciniamo la lonza al forno.[5][18][22]
  2. A cured meat made from the boned pork loin, called elsewhere coppa or capocollo.[5][12]
  3. (central Italy) The meat of the pig's neck.[5][16]
  4. (Tuscany, in the plural) The cheeks, lips and tail of the ox, used for a stew.[5][16][22]
  5. A white grape variety with long bunches.[5][21]
  • lince
  • lombo
  • lombata
  • Latin lynx
  • French longe

Usage notes

DELI, GRADIT and Zingarelli number the cat 1 and the loin 2;[3][4][5][18] Nocentini reverses the order.[3][4][5][18] The old Tuscan phrase menare la lonza meant to toil hard.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 j 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 d e f g 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 k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2268
  9. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b c d 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 d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  13. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 215
  14. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  15. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
  16. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  17. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  18. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  19. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
  20. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 602
  21. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  22. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Lonza.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/lonza. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

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