oca

Forms

oca f (plural oche, diminutive ochina or ochétta, augmentative ocóna, pejorative ocàccia)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian ocha, Old Italian occa and Old Italian oga, the last at Pisa and Lucca.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin auca (“goose; bird”), recorded in the fables of Avianus around 400 AD and in glosses.^{[4][5][6][7][3]} The sources explain the Latin word in different ways: from an earlier Vulgar Latin *avica, a diminutive of Latin avis (“bird”) (Devoto–Oli, Zingarelli, Wiktionary); as taken from Latin aucella or Latin aucellus, as Nocentini has it; or as a back-formation from Latin avicula (“little bird”), as in the LEI and de Vaan.^{[8][9][1][5][3][7]} DELI allows either of the first two.^[4] A Latin gloss keeps the older meaning “bird”.^[3]

The word has French oie (Old French oue), Occitan auca, Catalan oca, Romansh ocha, Friulian àuce and Dalmatian jauca;^[3][5][10] Spanish oca is borrowed from Catalan.^[3][5][10] It replaced the inherited Latin anser (“goose”), a cognate of German Gans and English goose, which returned only in Spanish ganso through Gothic.^[5][11] In much of central and southern Italy the later Late Latin paparus, of imitative origin, took its place, and in parts of Sicily the word seems to be a Tuscan and literary import.^[3][4]

The Latin word for “bird” goes back to Proto-Italic *awis and Proto-Indo-European *h₂éu-i-s (“bird”), with cognates in Sanskrit वि (ví) and Ancient Greek αἰετός (aietós, “eagle”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine account book of 1288: a Giovanni, per iiij oche, questo dì (“to Giovanni, for four geese, this day”).^[2] DELI's first is Bono Giamboni, before 1292, and it notes a messere Rinieri dell'Oche in a document of San Gimignano of 1227.^[4] The meaning is the farmyard bird raised for its meat and feathers.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word named several similar birds (oca marina, perhaps the merganser) and appeared on coats of arms and shop signs.^[2] Boccaccio's Decameron has the saying avevasi un'oca a denaio, e un papero giunta, a goose for a penny and a gosling thrown in.^[12] The figurative “silly person, especially a woman” is recorded in Benedetto Varchi before 1565.^[4] The LEI also finds the old sense “bird” in a figurative use for the penis, like uccello.^[3]

Ocaggine, silliness, is recorded in 1910.^[4] The ocarina, a clay wind instrument shaped like a stylized goose, comes from an Emilian diminutive ucarén-na “little goose” and was made famous by Giuseppe Donati of Budrio in 1867.^[4] Common phrases are pelle d'oca (goose pimples), penna d'oca (a quill), passo dell'oca (the goose step) and gioco dell'oca, a board game with dice.^[9][13][14]

Timeline

• About 400 – Late Latin auca is recorded in Avianus.^[4][3]
• 1227 – The name Rinieri dell'Oche appears in a document of San Gimignano.^[4]
• 1288 – A Florentine account book records oche.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses oca.^[4]
• Before 1565 – Benedetto Varchi uses it for a silly person.^[4]
• 1867 – Giuseppe Donati of Budrio gives the ocarina its goose shape.^[4]
• 1910 – Ocaggine is recorded in Carlo Dossi.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A goose: a large web-footed farmyard bird with a long neck and white or grey feathers, raised for its meat, liver and down; also any wild bird of the genus Anser: Le oche starnazzavano nell'aia.^[6][8][15]
2. (figurative) A silly, empty-headed person, especially a woman: Non fare l'oca!;^[6][15][9] oca giuliva, a giggling airhead.^[6][15][9]

Word family

• ocarina
• ocaggine
• ochetta
• ochino
• oco

Related words

• papero
• uccello
• Latin avis
• French oie

Usage notes

A separate oca, a technical word, is the Andean plant Oxalis tuberosa, grown for its edible tubers; it is from Spanish oca (1554), an adaptation of a Quechua word, and is recorded in Italian in the 16th century.^[6][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 2130
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 750