migliaccio

Forms

migliaccio m (plural migliacci)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin miliācium (“millet cake”), the noun use of Latin miliāceus (“of millet”), from milium (“millet”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} DELI cites the Late Latin word from Paulus Diaconus, and GRADIT and the GDLI compare Medieval Latin miliaccium (“millet bread”).^[2][7][8]

The adjective first described polenta or cakes made with millet.^[2][8] Francesco Redi thought the name came from the hulled millet the cake was once made with.^[2][9] Nocentini traces the meaning from the millet cake to the chestnut cake, and then to the pig's blood cake baked in a pan, which looks like it and is seasoned in the same way.^[3]

The Latin word for millet goes back to Proto-Italic *meljom, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind”), and is compared with Ancient Greek μελίνη (melínē, “millet”) and Lithuanian málnos (“a kind of millet”).^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dino Compagni's Cronica of 1310–1312: some young men of the Cerchi held in the court of the podestà were given un migliaccio di porco, a cake of pig's blood.^{[2][3][11][8]}

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named a cake made with millet, and the migliaccio bianco made with millet, cheese and lard, which Boccaccio lists among delicacies.^[11][12] The migliaccio di porco was made with millet and pig's blood.^[11]

The sense “chestnut cake” is recorded from 1614–1617 in Tassoni.^[2] Tommaseo noted that the flour cake was the living sense, while the blood cake was called roventino in Florence and sanguinaccio in Lucca and elsewhere.^[12] Fanfani recorded a maize-flour cake baked in a pan like the chestnut cake.^[9] Today the blood cake belongs to Tuscany and some other regions, and in Naples the name is given to a maize-flour cake with pork cracklings and cheese.^[13][7][1]

Founders called a mass of metal that sets too early a migliaccio: Cellini writes that he saw the metal all clotted, la qual cosa si domanda l'essersi fatto un migliaccio “which is called having made a migliaccio”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses migliaccio di porco.^[2][3][11]
• 1614–1617 – Tassoni uses the word for the chestnut cake.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, cooking) A thin cake of pig's blood mixed with pine nuts, raisins and spices, baked in a pan; sanguinaccio.^{[14][5][6][1]}
2. (cooking) A sweet cake of millet flour.^[7][13]
3. (uncommon) A chestnut-flour cake; castagnaccio.^[14][5][6]
4. (Naples) A cake of maize flour with pork cracklings and cheese.^[7][13]
5. (metallurgy) A mass of metal that sets too early in the crucible.^{[7][15][4][14]}

Word family

• migliacciola

Related words

• miglio
• castagnaccio
• sanguinaccio
• Latin milium

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 662
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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier