pennacchio

Forms

pennacchio m (plural pennacchi)^[1] Old forms include penacchio, penachio and pennachio, and an old popular variant spennacchio.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinnaclum, from Late Latin pinnāculum (“little wing; peak”), a diminutive of Latin pinna (“feather, wing”), here in the sense of a tuft of feathers on the head.^[5][6][7][1] Medieval Latin penaclum is recorded at Bologna in 1250.^[2] The learned borrowing of the same Latin word is pinnacolo.^[5][1]

The Latin word appears in the Vulgate, rendering Ancient Greek πτερύγιον (pterúgion); it is an irregular diminutive, perhaps shaped on nouns such as Latin prōpugnāculum.^[1] The base noun is probably a dialect variant of Latin penna (“feather”).^[8][1]

The Italian word was borrowed into French as Middle French pennache, now French panache, and into Spanish and Portuguese as penacho and penacho.^[6][9][1] English panache came from French in the 1550s.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin–Eugubine glossary of the second half of the 14th century has penacchio, whose meaning there is uncertain: perhaps a case for writing tools, or a bunch of feathers worn as an ornament.^[3] DELI's first sure record is before 1470, in Luca Pulci, of a crest or bunch of feathers worn as an ornament.^[5] Zingarelli dates it before 1449.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Renaissance poets describe knights' crests: in Pulci a knight unlaces a helmet and strikes off its plume.^[11] From the 15th century the word passed into French, where panache has been used since 1527 in that spelling.^[12]

Before 1764 Algarotti used pennacchio in architecture for the pendentive, the curved triangle that joins the dome to a square or polygonal base.^[5] Wisps of smoke from a locomotive or a volcano are pennacchi from 1878.^[5][13] Other transferred senses are the crown of a tree, the male flower of maize, the coronal streamers of the Sun and the glow near an electrode.^[7][14][13] In horse racing, fare pennacchio is a fall over an obstacle;^[2] GDLI takes this sense back from French faire panache.^[2]

Timeline

• 1250 – Medieval Latin penaclum is recorded at Bologna.^[2]
• Second half of the 14th century – Penacchio appears in a Latin–Eugubine glossary.^[3]
• Before 1470 – Luca Pulci uses pennacchio “plume”.^[5]
• 1527 – French pannache is recorded.^[12]
• 1550s – English panache is first recorded, from French.^[10]
• Before 1764 – Francesco Algarotti uses the architectural sense “pendentive”.^[5]
• 1878 – Renato Fucini uses pennacchio for a plume of smoke.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plume, a tuft of feathers worn as an ornament on a helmet, a military hat or a horse's headstall: un elmo con il pennacchio rosso.^[7][14][15]
2. A bunch of feathers on women's hats or hairstyles.^[7][13]
3. A woollen trimming on a metal stem, placed at the sides of a hearse.^[7][14]
4. (figurative) A plume of smoke, steam or mist: un pennacchio di vapore sopra il lago.^[7][14][16]
5. (literary) The crown of a tree or a long drooping flower cluster.^[7][13]
6. (astronomy) A coronal streamer, a ray of light from the solar corona.^[7][16]
7. (architecture) A pendentive, the curved triangle between a dome and a square or polygonal base.^[7][14][16]
8. (botany) The male flower spike of maize.^[14][15]
9. (nautical) A wind indicator with a bunch of feathers instead of a vane.^[7][15][16]

Word family

• pennacchiera
• impennacchiare
• pennacchiuto
• pennacchino

Related words

• penna
• pinnacolo
• panache
• Latin pinnaculum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12
12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana