meliaca

Forms

meliaca f (plural meliache)^[1] There are also the old forms Old Italian umiliaca (spelled humiliaca too) and Old Italian muliaca.^[2][3] In Milan the word is Lombard mognaga.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin armeniaca (“apricot tree”), the feminine of armeniacus (“Armenian”).^[5][6][1][7] The Latin adjective is taken from Ancient Greek ἀρμενιακός (armeniakós), from Ἀρμενία (Armenía, “Armenia”), and the feminine follows the Greek name of the tree;^[7] Columella and Pliny already use it.^[7] The LEI doubts that Armenia was really the tree's home: the Armenians were at most middlemen between Asia and the Mediterranean, and the name belongs with other names that tie Eastern goods to the East.^[7]

The tree was little grown in the early Middle Ages and reappeared in the late 13th century, in Pietro de' Crescenzi, under the form Medieval Latin muniacus, the base of most of the popular forms.^[7] In the Tuscan and Abruzzese types meliaco and this word the second nasal has been dissimilated, /m … n/ to /m … l/, and the first syllable, taken for the article, has fallen away; Old Italian umiliaca keeps a vowel before it.^[7] The same Latin word gave Emilian and Romagnol forms of the type moliaca, Lombard mognaga and, with another suffix, Venetian armelin and Piedmontese armelin.^[7][4]

The usual Italian word albicocca has a different source: the Arabs spread the tree again from Persia through North Africa, Sicily and Spain, and many names of the apricot go back to Arabic.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Florentine, in Zucchero Bencivenni's Santà of 1310, where meliache is the fruit of the apricot tree, counted there as a kind of peach.^[2][3] The masculine meliaco “a variety of apricot tree” follows in the Italian version of Crescenzi's work on agriculture (1320), which also has umiliaco.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named the fruit, with meliaco and umiliaco for the tree.^[2][8] A Florentine saying recorded before 1492 in Bellincioni, dare a qualcuno per persiche meliache, meant to make someone believe one thing for another.^[8] The Renaissance writers still used the word: Vasari admired German carvers who worked whole scenes into the stones of cherries and meliache.^[9]

From the 17th century meliaca is recorded for the tree as well, and in 1809 Targioni gives it for an apricot with a sweet kernel;^[8] Rigutini and Fanfani (1875) use it for the nectarine.^[8] Today it is a Tuscan word for the apricot, beside the general albicocca.^[1][10][11]

Timeline

• 1310 – Meliache appears in Zucchero Bencivenni's Santà at Florence.^[2]
• 1320 – Meliaco and umiliaco appear in the Italian version of Crescenzi.^[8]
• Before 1492 – Bellincioni has dare per persiche meliache.^[8]
• 1550 – Zingarelli's date for meliaca.^[6]
• 1614 – Meliaca “apricot tree” is recorded in Politi.^[8]
• 1875 – Rigutini and Fanfani give the sense “nectarine”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, Tuscany) apricot, the fruit of the apricot tree: Al mercato le meliache erano già mature.^{[5][10][1][11]}
2. (botany, dated) The apricot tree.^[6][8]

Word family

• meliaco

Related words

• albicocca
• Latin armeniaca

Usage notes

Devoto–Oli stresses melìaca and gives meliàca as literary;^[10][6] Zingarelli prefers meliàca and calls melìaca rare.^[10][6] The LEI explains the classical stress of melìaca as a learned reshaping of a popular word.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 651
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1293
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1299
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)