palo

Forms

palo m (plural pali)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pālus (“stake, post”), also neuter pālum in Varro.^[2][3][4][1] The word survives in every Romance language, and DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance form /ˈpal-u/ “stake”.^[5]

The same word is French pieu, Occitan pal, Catalan pal, Spanish palo, Portuguese pao, Sardinian palu and Romanian par.^[3][6] It was borrowed from Latin into Old High German pfāl (now German Pfahl) and Old English pāl, whence English pole, and into Welsh pawl.^[3][6]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *pākslos, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-slos, a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to attach, fix”).^[1] It is from the root of pangō (“to drive in, fix”), as “a thing driven into the ground”, and is compared with Ancient Greek πάσσαλος (pássalos, “peg”).^[3][7][8] The same root gave pala.^[2][3][9] The sense “lookout for thieves” probably spread from Naples.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Conto navale of 1080–1130, with the sense “long round piece of wood, pointed at one end, driven into the ground to fence or support”.^[2] Among GDLI's early quotations is Bono Giamboni's advice that a knight should know how to dig ditches and drive in stakes: Sappia fare fosse e pali ficcare.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Dante compares a sinner planted head down in the rock to a stake: Anima trista come pal commessa (Inferno 19).^[10][9] The stake was also an instrument of execution: Boccaccio has a man tied to a palo to be burned, and impalement, the Turkish punishment, is dated by DEI from 1555.^[10][4] Old and dialect forms include palio and paro, with the plural pagli.^[8]

New senses came with new things: the telegraph pole in 1871, the heraldic pale in 1895 and the football goalpost in 1958.^[2] In thieves' slang the palo is the lookout who keeps watch during a robbery, first described in 1882 by G. Buttà as the spy who warns the thieves of danger.^[2] The phrase mettere dei paletti “set limits” follows French poser des jalons.^[2] In recent slang palo also means a thousand euros.^[1]

Timeline

• 1080–1130 – The Conto navale has the first record.^[2]
• Before 1304 – Palicciata, the old form of palizzata, appears in a translation of Plutarch.^[2]
• 1340 – Palare “to stake” appears in the Italian Palladius.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses paletto.^[2]
• 1555 – The palo as an instrument of impalement is recorded.^[4]
• 1871 – Palo telegrafico is in Tommaseo–Bellini.^[2]
• 1882 – G. Buttà describes the thieves' lookout called palo.^[2]
• 1895 – The heraldic sense is recorded.^[2]
• 1958 – The goalpost sense is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stake or pole of wood or other material, often pointed at one end and driven into the ground as a support or to fence an area: Abbiamo legato i pomodori ai pali.^[11][12][13]
2. A tall vertical support of metal or concrete for overhead lines: palo della luce.^[11][12][14]
3. (building) A foundation pile: palo trivellato.^[13][15][16]
4. (figurative, slang) A lookout who keeps watch while accomplices commit a crime: fare il palo.^[11][12][13]
5. (figurative, colloquial) A very tall, thin person; a stiff, rigid person: stare dritto come un palo.^[11][12][13]
6. The stake used for impalement, or the punishment itself.^[11][13]
7. (sports) In football and similar games, either goalpost; in the plural, the goal itself; a shot that hits the post: incrocio dei pali.^[11][15][13]
8. (nautical) An additional mast with fore-and-aft sails: nave a palo.^[15][13][14]
9. (heraldry) A pale, the vertical band in the middle of a shield.^[15][13][1]
10. (card games) The cards of one suit held by a player; the suit itself.^[15][13]
11. (slang) A thousand euros.^[1]

Word family

• paletto
• palina
• palizzata
• palizzo
• palare
• palata
• palaia
• palificare
• palificazione
• impalare
• impalamento
• contropalo

Related words

• pala
• Latin pālus
• French pieu
• German Pfahl
• English pole

Usage notes

Saltare di palo in frasca is to jump illogically from one subject to another.^[13][14] DEI takes the nautical sense “additional mast” and the card-game sense “suit” from Spanish palo.^[17] GDLI has a separate palo “manioc”, from Spanish palo “tree”, and legno palo, a medicinal wood.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2735
5. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2736