pedone

Forms

pedone m (plural pedoni)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pedō (“one who goes on foot”), a word known from glosses for a man on foot as against a rider.^[2][3][1] The DEI, GRADIT and the TLIO call it Medieval Latin.^[4][5][6] It is built on Latin pēs, pedis (“foot”).^[7][2][8] Devoto, the DEI, Prati and Battaglia take its first sense to have been “broad-footed” or “big-footed”, an augmentative like the cognomen Nāsō beside nasus (“nose”).^{[9][4][10][11]}

The same word is French pion, Occitan pezó, Catalan pehó, Spanish peón and Portuguese peão.^[2][3] Nocentini notes that it first marked a lower rank: the soldier without a horse, whence the chess piece, or the civilian without one, whence “labourer, peasant” in Spanish and Portuguese.^[2]

The Latin noun goes back through Proto-Italic *pets to Proto-Indo-European *pṓds (“foot”), the source also of Ancient Greek πούς (poús) and English foot.^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Frotula of Patecchio of Cremona, from the 13th century, where a pedone is a soldier who fights and marches on foot.^[6] DELI dates this sense to the same century in a chronicle from Lucca, which tells of “500 cavalieri e magna turba di pedoni” (500 horsemen and a great crowd of foot soldiers).^[7][11]

Semantic evolution

In the old armies the pedoni were the infantry, the largest part of the host but below the cavalry in rank and dignity, and Dante sets “cavalier” beside “pedoni” in the Inferno.^[11][13] The TLIO already finds the chess sense in Old Italian;^[6][7] Boccaccio called the chess piece pedona around 1336, a form used until the 16th century and then replaced by pedina.^[6][7] In French the chess term pion is recorded from the 12th century.^[10]

Galileo used pedone in 1630–1631 for anyone travelling on foot, and the word also named a courier who carried letters on foot, often running, where no other transport could be used; from Italian, French took pédon “courier” in 1762.^[7][14][4] With motor traffic the word came to mean the walker as opposed to the motorist, as Devoto observed.^[9][15] Its derivatives followed: pedonale (1839–1841), passaggio pedonale and striscia pedonale (1942, Panzini) and pedonalizzare, which Nocentini dates to 1966 and DELI to 1970.^[7][2]

Timeline

• 13th century – Patecchio of Cremona uses pedone for a foot soldier.^[6]
• 13th century – A chronicle from Lucca speaks of pedoni beside horsemen.^[7]
• About 1336 – Boccaccio calls the chess piece pedona.^[7]
• 1630–1631 – Galileo uses pedone for a person on foot.^[7]
• 1762 – French pédon “courier” is taken from Italian.^[4]
• 1839–1841 – Pedonale is recorded, of a road.^[7]
• 1942 – Panzini records passaggio pedonale and striscia pedonale.^[7]
• 1966 – Pedonalizzare is first recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pedestrian, a person on foot, especially in town traffic: Il semaforo era verde per i pedoni.^{[5][15][8][1]}
2. (chess) A pawn: each of the eight pieces of least value that each player has, which move forward along the files and cannot go back.^{[5][8][16][1]}
3. (historical) A foot soldier, an infantryman.^[5][15][6]
4. (historical) A courier who carried letters or parcels on foot.^[14][5][17]
5. (archaic) A wayfarer, a traveller on foot.^[5][15]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Going on foot: “l'esercito pedone” (the army on foot, Tasso).^[15][18][14]
2. (uncommon) For pedestrians, the same as pedonale.^[5][18][15]

Word family

• pedonale
• pedonalizzare
• pedona
• pedonabile
• pedonaggio
• pedonaglia

Related words

• piede
• pedina
• peone
• Latin pes
• French pion

Usage notes

GRADIT lists a regional pedone “the base of a plant's trunk”, also the butt of a fishing rod where the reel is fixed, formed from pedo with the suffix -one.^[5] Battaglia calls this pedone Tuscan and Umbrian, with records from Restoro d'Arezzo (1282) on, and gives a third, old pedone “shepherd's staff”, from Latin pedum.^[19][6]

Tuscan has alla pedona “on foot”, and a jocular feminine pedona is used for a woman on foot.^[17][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2821
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 756
11. ^ 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, 929
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 930