pania

Forms

pania f (plural panie)^[1] The old form Old Italian paina, closer to the Latin source, and an old plural pane are recorded.^[2][3] A regional form is pànnia.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pagina, the Latin word that also gave the learned pagina, taken in an old concrete sense.^[5][6][7][1] DELI and GRADIT give that sense as “trellis, pergola”, Sabatini–Coletti as a pergola or a stake for the vine, and Nocentini as “pole, stake”: a stick smeared with birdlime at its tip to catch birds, whose name passed by metonymy to the birdlime itself.^[5][7][8][6] DELI and Devoto–Oli trace the meanings “limed twig” and then “birdlime” to the trellis sense, but only as probable.^[5][9]

The Latin noun lost its ⟨g⟩ between vowels and gave an intermediate paina, recorded in Old Italian, and the vowels then changed places, giving the modern form.^[6][8][4] Devoto compares the metathesis in aria, from Latin aera.^[10] Meyer-Lübke and Prati set up a popular Latin *pagina “limed twig” for this word, which is found only in Italian.^[11][3] Lucchese has the derivative painella in the same sense.^[11][12]

The Latin noun is a derivative of pangō (“to fix, to drive in”).^{[8][13][14][15]} De Vaan derives the noun from a full grade of the verb's root, Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to attach”), the source also of Ancient Greek πήγνυμι (pḗgnumi, “to fix, join”).^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the prose letters of Guittone d'Arezzo, from before 1294, in the old form paina.^[2][3] DELI's first dated sense is the sticky substance made from mistletoe berries and used to catch small birds, in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi (about 1350): “birds are caught with mistletoe, or pania”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The TLIO's senses run from the sticky substance itself to the limed twig and to any substance like it, above all pitch.^[2] Dante calls the boiling pitch of the barrators' ditch le boglienti pane (Inferno XXI, 124), with the old plural.^[17]

The figurative sense “lure, snare, deceit” appears with Boccaccio's amorose panie “love's limed twigs” in 1353.^[5] Old Italian already had phrases for being caught in a hard situation and for falling in love.^[2] Ariosto warns that whoever sets foot on l'amorosa pania should pull it back before his wings are caught.^[13][17]

Derivatives name the limed sticks: panione (16th century) and paniuzza, with the verbs impaniare (early 14th century) and spaniare (15th century).^[6][12] Hunting with birdlime is now forbidden by law.^[9][17] In fishing, pania also names the cork floats that hold up the upper edge of a drift net, a sense Sabatini–Coletti date to the 17th century and derive probably from the same word.^[8][17][7]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses the old form paina.^[2][3]
• Before 1320 – GRADIT and Nocentini date the word to about 1320.^[7][6]
• About 1350 – The translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi uses pania for birdlime.^[5]
• 1353 – Boccaccio writes of amorose panie, love's snares.^[5]
• 16th century – Panione, a large limed rod, is recorded.^[6]
• 17th century – The fishing-net sense of the floats appears.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. birdlime: a soft sticky substance made by boiling the berries and leaves of mistletoe and other plants, once smeared on twigs to catch small birds.^[7][9][17]
2. (figurative) A deceitful lure or flattering snare, often in the plural: cadere nella pania “to fall into the trap”.^[7][9][8]
3. (fishing) One of the cork floats that hold up the upper edge of a drift net.^[7][8][17]
4. (fishing) The long line to which the hooks of a longline are fastened.^[7]

Word family

• panione
• paniuzza
• impaniare
• spaniare
• panioso

Related words

• pagina

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 734
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 479
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d e f 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 d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2747
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
17. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)