maglio

Forms

maglio m (plural magli)^[1] Old forms include malgio, malglo and the plural maji.^[2] An old regional form is magghio.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin malleus (“hammer”), a technical word of popular form.^[4][5][6][1] The Latin cluster /llj/ became the palatal /ʎʎ/ written ⟨gli⟩.^[7][8] The same word is French mail, Occitan malh, Catalan mall, Spanish majo, Portuguese malho “flail”, Sardinian mazzu and Romanian mai, and it passed into Basque mailu.^[5][9][10]

The Latin word is compared directly with Old Church Slavonic млатъ (mlatŭ, “hammer”).^[5][11][1] De Vaan, following Schrijver, explains it as an adjective in -eus built on an older *molalo- (“hammer”), from Proto-Indo-European *molH-lo- (“crushing tool”), from the root for “to grind” that also gave Latin molō (“to grind”).^[11][1] Blanca María Prósper instead derives it from Proto-Indo-European *merh₂-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Pistoia document of 1302–1303, for a big, heavy two-headed hammer.^[2] Domenico Cavalca, before 1342, compares contrition to a maglio that breaks and crushes the heart, and the Italian Crescenzi of about 1350 says that the base of the almond tree makes very strong mallets for splitting wood.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The DEI names the wooden hammer used to kill cattle,^[10] and Annibal Caro's Aeneid compares a bellowing wounded bull to one struck by a maglio that does not fall fully.^[12][13] Vannoccio Biringuccio, before 1537, uses the word for the smith's heavy iron hammer with a long handle and for the machine of the ironworks that shapes metal blocks between hammer and anvil.^[4]

In the 16th century the maglio was also the stick of pallamaglio, a game played with wooden balls,^[10][14] and the word later named the mallet of croquet.^[6][15] The DEI dates the steam hammer to 1784.^[10] Zingarelli also gives the anatomical sense, the hammer of the ear.^[16]

Timeline

• 1302–1303 – A Pistoia document records maglio.^[2]
• Before 1320 – GRADIT and Devoto–Oli date the word.^[6][15]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses the word.^[4]
• About 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses the word.^[4]
• 16th century – Maglio names the stick of pall-mall.^[10]
• Before 1537 – Vannoccio Biringuccio uses it for a smith's hammer and a forging machine.^[4]
• 1784 – The steam hammer is invented.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mallet or maul: a large hammer with two heads, usually of wood, once used to stun oxen and now to drive barrel hoops, chisels and wedges.^[6][15][16]
2. A heavy iron sledgehammer with a long handle.^[16][17][7]
3. (mechanics) A power hammer: a machine for forging and stamping metal, in which a heavy ram falls on the piece set on an anvil.^[6][15][12]
4. (sport) The long-handled mallet of pall-mall and of croquet.^[6][15][7]
5. (anatomy) The malleus of the ear.^[16]

Word family

• maglietto
• magliare
• pallamaglio

Related words

• mazza
• Latin malleus
• French mail

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b 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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2315
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 617
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli