muraglia

Forms

muraglia f (plural muraglie)^[1] The 14th-century form was muraia; other old forms are muràgia and muràlgia.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mūrālia (“walls”), the neuter plural of the adjective meaning “of a wall”, used as a noun.^{[2][3][5][6][4]} Wiktionary calls mūrālia Late Latin.^[1] Devoto–Oli and Treccani treat it instead as a derivative from Italian muro.^[7][8]

Latin mūrālis is formed from mūrus (“wall”) and the suffix -ālis.^[9][1] DELI calls mūrus of unknown origin.^[2] It was earlier moerus and moirus, and de Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *moiros and a form Proto-Indo-European *(H)moi-ro- (“building”);^[10][9][1] Wiktionary gives the root Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to fix, build fences”).^[10][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the 14th-century form muraie, in the Storia di Stefano, for a strong, imposing wall that shelters a town or a fortress.^[2] DELI finds the form muraglia first in Cellini, before 1571, and holds the 14th-century example given by the Crusca to be false.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Before 1594 Panigarola used the word for a sheer rock face.^[2] Farriers have used it since the 16th century for the horny wall of a horse's hoof.^[11][12] The figurative sense of a barrier is rare before Tommaseo's dictionary of 1869.^[2] The augmentative muraglione is recorded from 1699.^[2]

Muraglia cinese, the Great Wall of China, became in the 19th century a figure for a moral barrier.^[11] In banking and law firms the same phrase now names the rules that keep information from passing between departments, the English Chinese wall.^[7] Tommaseo records the proverb Nelle belle muraglie si genera il serpe, “snakes breed in fine walls”, of deceptive appearances.^[13]

Timeline

• 14th century – Muraie appears in the Storia di Stefano.^[2]
• 16th century – Muraglia is used for the wall of a horse's hoof.^[11]
• Before 1571 – Cellini uses the form muraglia.^[2]
• Before 1594 – Panigarola uses it for a vertical rock face.^[2]
• 1699 – Muraglione is recorded.^[2]
• 1869 – Tommaseo's dictionary records the figurative sense “barrier”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A high, massive wall built for defence or as an enclosure: la Grande Muraglia.^[3][7][5]
2. (mountaineering) A sheer, unbroken rock face.^[3][7][5]
3. (figurative) A barrier that separates people; an obstacle: una muraglia di sospetti.^[3][7][6]
4. (zoology) The upper part of the horny wall of a hoof, especially a horse's.^[7][14][5]
5. (zoology) The ring of chalky plates that encloses the body of a barnacle.^[3]

Word family

• muraglione
• muragliato

Related words

• murale
• muro
• Latin mūrus

Usage notes

GRADIT also lists muraglia as a variant of moraglia, a dark coin with much copper in its alloy struck by several Italian mints, probably a southern form of medaglia.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 93
5. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b c 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2531
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 95
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse