pelare

Forms

pelare (first-person singular present pélo, first-person singular past historic pelài, past participle pelàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also had pellare and pilare.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pilāre (“to deprive of hair, to pluck”), from pĭlus (“hair”).^[3][4][5][6] In Latin the verb first meant “to grow hairy” (Novius), and then “to strip of hair” (Martial).^[2][6] Wiktionary also allows a formation from Italian pelo + -are within Italian.^[1] The same verb is Occitan pelar, Catalan pelar, Spanish pelar, Portuguese pelar and Romansh paler, and Meyer-Lübke saw no need to separate French peler “to peel” from it, since Italian and Spanish have both senses.^[4][7]

The short /i/ of the Latin noun regularly gave /e/ in Italian, as in pelo.^[3][4] The sense “to peel fruit or vegetables” spread from Venetian, and perhaps also from Lombardy; in 1839–41 Molossi still called it a Gallicism and a Lombardism.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, before 1250, is figurative: Giacomo da Lentini uses pelare for “to strip someone of their money”, as by overcharging.^[3][8] The literal sense “to strip of hair or feathers” is recorded before 1342, in Domenico Cavalca, and the participle pelato “stripped of hair” before 1306, in Jacopone da Todi.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb above all for tearing out hair or a beard: Boccaccio describes a woman pulling the hair from a servant's head, and the passion narratives say that Christ's beard was plucked.^[2][10] The reflexive pelarsi also meant to tear one's hair in grief.^[8] Before 1367 Fazio degli Uberti used it of heat or cold that seems to take off the skin.^[3]

“To peel” is found in Venetian from 1775, and Tuscan purists long preferred mondare; it is now the ordinary sense with potatoes, chestnuts and tomatoes.^[3][5] Pelati, peeled tinned tomatoes, are recorded in 1935, the kitchen tool pelapatate in 1927, and pelata for a bald head from 1869.^[3] The figurative sense “to fleece” remains in colloquial use, as does the phrase gatta da pelare, a difficult job.^[5][11][12]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses pelare “to fleece”.^[3]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses pelato “stripped of hair”.^[3]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses the literal sense.^[3]
• Before 1367 – Fazio degli Uberti uses it of biting heat or cold.^[3]
• 1775 – The sense “to peel” is recorded in Venetian.^[3]
• 1927 – Pelapatate “potato peeler” is recorded in Carlo Linati.^[3]
• 1935 – Pelati “peeled tomatoes” appears in the Enciclopedia italiana.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To remove the hair from a hide or a slaughtered animal: pelare il maiale.^[5][13][14]
2. (transitive) To pluck a bird: pelare un'anatra.^[5][13][12]
3. (transitive, colloquial) To cut someone's hair very short, to shave it off.^[5][13][15]
4. (transitive) To peel fruit or vegetables: pelare le pere.^[5][13][12]
5. (transitive) To strip of leaves or vegetation: La grandine ha pelato il vigneto.^[5][13][15]
6. (figurative) Of cold or heat, to sting the skin; also intransitive: un’aria gelida che pela.^[5][13][12]
7. (figurative, colloquial) To fleece someone, to take their money, or to charge too much: In quel bar ti pelano.^[5][13][11]
8. (pronominal, colloquial) pelarsi: to go bald; also to graze one's skin.^[13][15][11]

Word family

• pelato
• pelata
• pelatura
• pelapatate
• pelatoio
• pelatore
• pelatrice
• spelare
• spelacchiare

Related words

• pelo
• Latin pilus

Usage notes

The idiom prendersi una gatta da pelare means to take on a troublesome task without being obliged to.^[14][16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 949
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
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 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli