ortica

Forms

ortica f (plural ortiche)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian ortiga, Old Italian ortige, Old Italian urtica, Old Italian urtiga, Old Italian ordica and Old Italian artica.^[2] The literary and archaic form urtica is still listed beside ortica.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin urtīca (“nettle”).^[5][6][7][1] The word is found in every Romance language: French ortie, Occitan ortiga, Catalan ortiga, Spanish ortiga, Portuguese ortiga and Romanian urzică.^[6][8][9] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance form with a short /ʊ/ and two types, one with /t/ and one with /d/; the second shows in southern forms such as Neapolitan ardica and Sicilian ardìcula.^[9][8][1] DEI and Meyer-Lübke think the ⟨ar-⟩ of the south may owe something to ardere “to burn”, though Meyer-Lübke allows that the /d/ may be a regular sound change.^[10][8]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown: DELI, Nocentini and Devoto find no sure comparison.^[5][6][11] GRADIT connects it with Latin ūrō (“to burn”),^[7] but DEI rejects that link because the vowel of the stem of the nettle word is short, and Wiktionary treats it as a folk etymology, since the verb's stem ended in /s/.^[10][1] Tommaseo still gave the burning verb as the source in 1861.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Tuscan translation of Andrea da Grosseto, 1268, where the word names the stinging herb that irritates the skin and was also used in medicine.^[2][13] The Veronese poet Giacomino da Verona, in the 13th century, already has the northern form ortige in a hell “all surrounded with nettles and thorns”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the plant was a figure of what stings and torments: Dante makes remorse a nettle, Di penter sì mi punse ivi l'ortica (“the nettle of repentance stung me so there”, Purgatorio XXXI, 85).^[13][3][2] The same image is used of a person with a sharp tongue, who “stings like a nettle”.^[14][15][7] Because nettles grow on untended ground, they stand for neglect: ci crescono le ortiche is said of an abandoned place.^[14][15][3]

The phrase gettare la tonaca alle ortiche, “to throw the cassock to the nettles”, means to leave the priesthood or the religious life;^[5][14] DELI notes that the matching French phrase goes back to the 15th century.^[5][14] The fibre spun from the plant was named by the same word in 1958, and ortica di mare is a name for stinging jellyfish.^[5][13][15] Other plants that look like the nettle but do not sting are also called ortica, such as the white dead-nettle, ortica bianca.^[16]

Timeline

• 13th century – Giacomino da Verona uses the northern form ortige.^[5]
• 1268 – First record in Andrea da Grosseto.^[2][13]
• Before 1303 – Onesto da Bologna uses the word.^[5]
• 1313–1319 – Dante's Purgatorio has the nettle of remorse.^[5]
• 1640 – Ortichino, a cloth made of nettle fibre, is recorded in Oudin.^[5]
• 1869 – The derivative orticaria (hives) is recorded in Tommaseo–Bellini.^[5]
• 1958 – The sense “textile fibre from the nettle” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. nettle, a perennial herb of the genus Urtica, especially the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), whose leaves are covered in stinging hairs; it grows on waste ground and is used in medicine and as food.^[7][3][14]
2. (in the plural) Nettle leaves cooked as food: gnocchi alle ortiche.^[3]
3. A name for various plants of the nettle family, or that look like nettles: ortica bianca (white dead-nettle).^[7][16]
4. (figurative) A sharp, sarcastic person.^[7][15]
5. (figurative, literary) A burning pain or remorse.^[7][3][13]
6. (textiles) The fibre obtained from some kinds of nettle.^[3][13][15]
7. (zoology) ortica di mare, a jellyfish.^[13][15][14]

Word family

• orticaria
• orticaio
• orticheto
• orticante
• urticante
• urticacea
• orticheggiare
• orticone

Related words

• Latin urtīca
• French ortie

Usage notes

Gettare alle ortiche is to throw something away as worthless, and gettare la tonaca alle ortiche to give up the religious life.^[7][14][15] The word gave place names in Tuscany through orticaia, a place full of nettles, recorded from the 11th century.^[10]

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 d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2683
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c d e f g Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)