maglia

Forms

maglia f (plural maglie)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian maia, Old Italian magla and Old Italian mallia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan malha, or Old French maille, from Latin macŭla (“spot, stain; mesh of a net”).^[4][5][6][1] The Gallo-Romance languages kept the sense “mesh”, and the Occitan word passed to Catalan malla, Spanish malla and Portuguese malha.^[5][7] The inherited Italian outcome of the Latin word is macchia “spot”.^[5][7]

The sources explain the link between “spot” and “mesh” by the look of a net, which seems a set of spots.^[8][3] In the 16th century Vincenzio Borghini already saw that the stain and the mesh came from one Latin noun with two senses.^[4]

The origin of the Latin noun is doubtful.^[9] De Vaan and Wiktionary derive it from Proto-Italic *smaklom (de Vaan *smatlo-), from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥H-tló-m (“wiping”), comparing Ancient Greek σμάω (smáō, “to wipe clean”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Orlanduccio Orafo, about 1267, of horses covered with mail: Manti buon' distrier coverti a maglia.^[2][3][4] In Old Italian the word meant mail armour, a ring for a hook, the mesh of a net, and even a spot on the cornea.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio has mail armour in 1339–1340, and stockings of mail.^[4][3] The sense of a knitting stitch and knitted fabric is recorded in Frugoni before 1768.^[4]

In the 19th century the word came to mean a knitted vest worn next to the skin, recorded at Milan in 1811 and preferred in many regions to the Tuscan camiciola.^[4] In sport the maglia is a team shirt (1942), and the maglia rosa and maglia gialla of the leaders of the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France took their colours from the papers that organised them.^[4][11] Maglia is also the mesh of an electrical network (1957).^[4]

Derivatives followed: maglietta (1598), maglieria (1886), maglificio (1926), and the Neapolitan magliaro, a pedlar of shoddy cloth (1952).^[4][5]

Timeline

• About 1267 – Orlanduccio Orafo uses maglia for mail.^[4][2]
• 1339–1340 – Boccaccio uses it for armour.^[4]
• Before 1768 – Frugoni uses it for knitting.^[4]
• 1811 – The sense “knitted vest” is recorded at Milan.^[4]
• 1942 – The sports shirt is recorded.^[4]
• 1952 – Magliaro appears in Carlo Bernari's novel.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stitch in knitting or crochet: lavorare a maglia “to knit”.^[6][12][11]
2. knitwear, knitted fabric: una sciarpa di maglia.^[6][11]
3. A vest or jumper covering the upper body: Mettiti la maglia di lana, fa freddo.^[6][13][11]
4. (sport) A team shirt or jersey: maglia rosa, the leader's jersey in the Giro d'Italia.^[6][13][11]
5. (historical) mail, armour of linked metal rings: cotta di maglia.^[6][13][2]
6. A link of a chain, a mesh of a net: cadere nelle maglie di un intrigo “to be caught in a plot”.^[6][11][14]

Word family

• maglietta
• maglione
• maglieria
• maglificio
• magliaia
• magliaro
• smagliare
• smagliatura
• rammagliare

Related words

• maglina
• macchia
• Latin macula
• French maille

Usage notes

A rarer maglia is a medieval coin worth half a denaro, struck by the Savoy in the 14th and 15th centuries, from French maille, a variant of méaille “medal”;^[6][3][15] GRADIT dates it to the 15th century.^[6][3][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)