Etymologically
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maiale

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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