orzo

Forms

orzo m (plural orzi)^[1] The Old Italian forms include orzeo, Old Italian orço, Old Italian orgio, Old Italian ordio and Old Italian orio.^[2][3] The Sicilian form is oriu.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hŏrdeum (“barley”).^[3][4][5][1] Devoto starts from Vulgar Latin *hordjum, with /j/ after the /d/.^[6] The same word is French orge, Occitan ordi, Catalan ordi and Romanian orz.^[4][7]

The Latin noun, with an old dialect form fordeum, goes back to Proto-Italic *horzdeom.^[8][1][9] Wiktionary and Nocentini trace it to an adjective meaning “bristly”, Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰr̥sdeyom, after the long awns of the ear, from the root of Latin horreō (“to bristle”).^[1][4] Its cognates are Old High German gersta and, less certainly, Ancient Greek κριθή (krithḗ).^[1][4][8] De Vaan finds it hard to derive all these from one form, since the Greek word has no /s/, and suggests that the Indo-European peoples may have borrowed their words for barley in Europe, where the grain had been grown since the seventh millennium BC.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are orzeo in the Decime d'Arlotto, a Tuscan document of about 1200, and orço in an inventory of 1221.^[3] The TLIO's first record is a Pistoia document of about 1200, for the cereal and its grain.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian named many kinds of barley: orzo marzuolo, sown in March, orzo mondo, with bare grains, and orzo di Galazia.^[2] It was the cheap grain beside wheat, and Giovanni Villani tells of grain sold with a quarter of barley mixed in.^[2][10] orzata was first a drink of barley flour in water (before 1311, Giordano da Pisa), and since 1618 a syrup of almonds, sugar and water.^[3]

Modern Italian also uses orzo for roasted barley and the coffee substitute made from it.^[11][12] The phrase dare l’orzo a qualcuno meant to give someone what they deserve.^[13] English borrowed orzo in 1917.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Orzeo appears in the Decime d'Arlotto.^[3]
• 1221 – Orço appears in an inventory of goods.^[3]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses orzata for a barley drink.^[3]
• 1618 – Orzata is first used for an almond syrup.^[3]
• 1917 – English orzo is first recorded.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. barley: the cereal plant Hordeum vulgare, like wheat, with rough leaves and long-awned ears.^[5][11][15]
2. The grain of this plant, used as fodder, for malt and beer, and in soups: orzo perlato (pearl barley).^[5][11][12]
3. Roasted ground barley, and the coffee-like drink made from it: caffè d’orzo, Al bar prendo sempre un orzo.^[11][13][15]
4. (botany) With a capital, the genus Hordeum of grasses.^[5][11]

Word family

• orzata
• orzaiolo
• orzato
• orzola

Related words

• orrore
• Latin hordeum
• French orge

Usage notes

An Old Italian adjective orzo “quarrelsome, offensive”, in a Sienese statute of about 1318, is a separate word: the GDLI derives it from orza, and the TLIO thinks of ordo.^[2][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca