pavone

Forms

pavone m (plural pavoni, feminine pavona or pavonessa)^[1] Old Italian had paone and pagone beside pavone.^[2][3] Sabatini–Coletti explain paone by the weakening and loss of the /v/, and pagone by a /g/ inserted to break up the hiatus.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pāvō (“peacock”).^[2][5][1] The word is inherited throughout Romance: French paon, Occitan paó, Catalan pagó, Spanish pavón, Portuguese pavão, Sardinian paone and Romanian păun.^[5][6] A Latin variant pavus, recorded in Ennius, which lives on in Old Occitan pau and in Spanish pavo.^[7] The Latin word was borrowed early into Germanic, giving German Pfau.^[7][6]

The Latin word is of eastern origin: the peacock came from India through Persia, but the source of the name is not known.^[5][2][8] Ancient Greek ταώς (taṓs) looks like a different adaptation of the same foreign word, and no common form can be reconstructed.^[5][8] Devoto and DEI also see an imitative element, comparing Latin paupulō (“to cry like a peacock”).^[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is paone in the Cremonese Libro of Uguccione da Lodi, of the early 13th century, naming the bird.^[2][3] Pagone appears about 1350 in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, and pavone before 1375 in Boccaccio.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the peacock was a dish of luxury cooking and already a figure of self-satisfaction and vainglory; it could also stand for providence.^[3] Brunetto Latini's Tesoro describes it as a large bird, mostly blue, and Franco Sacchetti wrote that it is so full of vainglory that all its delight is in looking at its feathers.^[10] The verb paoneggiare, later pavoneggiarsi “to strut, to show off”, is recorded in Boccaccio in 1353.^[2]

A vain, conceited person is called a pavone from 1891.^[2] The name passed to other creatures for their colours: the lapwing pavoncella (1622), the moth pavonia (1875), and butterflies and fish.^[2][5][11] Placed after a colour word, pavone names a bright peacock blue or green.^[12][13] English borrowed it as a rare pavone in 1590, and German as Pavone in 1876.^[14]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses paone.^[2][3]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses paoneggiare “to strut”.^[2]
• c. 1350 – Pagone appears in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[2]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses the form pavone.^[2]
• 1590 – English pavone is first recorded.^[14]
• 1622 – G. P. Olina records pavoncella “lapwing”.^[2]
• 1876 – German Pavone is first recorded.^[14]
• 1891 – Pavone “vain person” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) The peacock or peafowl (Pavo cristatus), a large bird of the pheasant family from southern Asia, whose male opens its long, eyed tail feathers into a fan;^[12][13][11] fare la ruota, of the peacock, to spread its tail.^[12][13][11]
2. (zoology) The genus Pavo, to which the common and the green peafowl belong.^[12][11]
3. (figurative) A vain, self-satisfied person;^[12][13][15] fare il pavone, to show off;^[12][13][15] farsi bello con le penne del pavone, to take credit for what others have done.^[12][13][15]
4. (zoology) In names of other animals: pavone di giorno and pavone di notte, two butterflies, and pesce pavone, a wrasse.^[13][11]
5. A bright, deep blue or green, like the peacock's plumage; as an invariable adjective after a colour word: verde pavone.^[12][13][4]

Word family

• pavoneggiarsi
• pavoncella
• pavonia
• pavonessa
• pavonazzo

Related words

• paonazzo
• Latin pavo
• French paon

Usage notes

The feminine is pavona or pavonessa.^[1][15] With a capital letter, Pavone is the southern constellation Pavo.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2810
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli