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maiale

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word maiale

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
13th century, Matazone da Caligano (as mazale)
Borrowed from
Latin maialis
Ultimate origin
Latin maiālis

Pronunciation

Forms

maiale m (plural maiali, feminine maiala)[1] The popular form Old Italian mazale is the earliest recorded, and survives in some dialects.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin maiālis (“castrated boar”).[2][4][5][6] DELI and the GDLI call it a learned word, beside the popular form Old Italian mazale;[2][7][4] Nocentini suggests that the ⟨i⟩ between vowels was kept because the word passed through the central and southern dialects.[2][7][4] Medieval Latin magialis is recorded at Farfa in 855.[8] The Latin word left few other Romance outcomes, among them Old Logudorese maiolariu (“chief swineherd”).[6]

The Romans derived the Latin word from Māia, the goddess to whom a fattened pig was sacrificed.[2][4][9] The form fits this explanation, but de Vaan considers it suspect and possibly a popular etymology;[10] Schrijver instead linked Old Irish mát (“pig”) through a form Latin *māsdiālis, but the formation is unclear.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is mazale in Matazone da Caligano, of the 13th century: Del mese de Natale / toge lo bon mazale, “in the month of Christmas take the good pig”.[2][7] The TLIO's first record of maiale is a statute of Messina from about 1338.[3] The Crescenzi translation of about 1350 explains the name: boars are castrated at about a year old, “and then they change their name, and, from boars (verri) they are called maiali”.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word still meant a castrated pig raised for food, the sense of the Latin.[3] It later became the general word for the domestic pig, beside porco, and named its meat from before 1858 (Guadagnoli).[2][11]

Figurative uses followed: a very dirty or coarse person in Foscolo (before 1827) and a person of filthy morals in Verga (1883), while in 1863 Fanfani noted only that maiale was said of a man as an insult.[2] During the Second World War the Italian navy gave the name to its manned torpedo, from its squat shape, a sense recorded in 1947.[8][11]

Timeline

  • 855 – Medieval Latin magialis is recorded at Farfa.[8]
  • 13th century – Matazone da Caligano writes mazale.[2]
  • c. 1338 – A statute of Messina has maiale.[3][4]
  • c. 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi explains the name of the castrated boar.[2]
  • Before 1827 – Foscolo uses it of a dirty, coarse person.[2]
  • Before 1858 – Guadagnoli uses it for pork.[2]
  • 1883 – Verga uses it of a person of filthy morals.[2]
  • 1947 – Maiale is recorded for the navy's manned torpedo.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. pig, hog: the domestic animal of the family Suidae, with a stout bristly body and a snout, raised for its meat: Il nonno allevava due maiali dietro la stalla.[5][12][13]
  2. pork: the meat of the pig: arrosto di maiale.[5][12][14]
  3. (figurative, colloquial) A dirty or coarse person; a greedy or very fat person: mangiare come un maiale.[5][12][11]
  4. (figurative) A person of repellent or lewd behaviour.[5][12][13]
  5. (nautical, history) The manned torpedo used by the Italian navy in the Second World War to attack ships in harbour.[5][13][14]

Word family

  • maiala
  • maialata
  • maialatura
  • maialeria
  • maialesco
  • porco
  • maggio
  • Latin maialis

Usage notes

The feminine maiala is uncommon and is used above all as an insult.[13][4]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2320
  9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b c d 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 d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Maiale.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/maiale. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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