pennello

pennello¹ brush

Pronunciation

• /penˈnɛl.lo/^[1]

Forms

pennello m (plural pennelli)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the brush is inherited from Vulgar Latin *penĕllus, a diminutive of Latin pēnis (“tail”).^[2][3][4][1] Nocentini explains the name by the likeness of the tuft to a horse's tail.^[3] The double ⟨nn⟩ comes from the influence of penna (“feather”), as Nocentini, Devoto–Oli, Sabatini–Coletti and Devoto say.^[3][5][6][7]

Classical Latin used the diminutive penicillus for a painter's brush.^[8][9] A Vulgar Latin *penicellus gave French pinceau.^[8] Italian passed the word on to Friulian pinel and to the Ladin of Gardena as penel.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in a Bolognese document of about 1290, where the word means the painter's tool, a stick with a tuft of animal hair tied to it.^[11] DELI dates it from Dante, before 1321, whose Purgatorio compares trails of light to brushstrokes: e di tratti pennelli avean sembiante (“and they had the look of brushes drawn along”).^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the brush stood for the art of painting.^[11] Boccaccio says of a painter that nothing in nature escaped his “stylus, pen or brush” (con lo stile e con la penna o col pennello).^[12][13] Cennini describes how to make brushes from the bristles of white pigs, which he finds better than black ones.^[9]

Derivatives followed: pennelleggiare “to paint with a brush” is in Dante, pennellato in Bembo (1505), pennellata “brushstroke” in Firenzuola (1540–41), and the verb pennellare in Oudin's dictionary (1640).^[2] Pennellatura was a stroke of the brush in 1680 and, since 1922, the painting of a liquid medicine onto the skin or a mucous membrane.^[2]

Engineers took the word for a dyke built out from a riverbank to turn the current away: penello before 1742 (Grandi) and pennello before 1776 (Lecchi).^[2] DEI records such a river defence at Verona in 1450 and puts it under penna.^[14] A small anchor fastened to the main anchor is a pennello from 1813, and a narrow beam of light from 1958.^[14][2] A Tuscan proverb, Loda lo scarpello, attienti al pennello, advises praising sculpture but keeping to painting, which costs less.^[12]

Timeline

• About 1290 – A Bolognese document has the first record of pennello “brush”.^[11]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses pennello and pennelleggiare.^[2]
• 1505 – Bembo has the participle pennellato.^[2]
• 1540–41 – Firenzuola uses pennellata “brushstroke”.^[2]
• 1640 – Oudin records the verb pennellare.^[2]
• Before 1742 – Penello is used of a river dyke (Grandi).^[2]
• 1813 – Pennello is recorded for a small auxiliary anchor.^[14]
• 1865 – Pennellessa, a broad flat brush, is recorded.^[2]
• 1950 – Pennellificio, a brush factory, is recorded.^[2]
• 1958 – The sense “narrow beam of light” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A brush, paintbrush: a tuft of natural hair or synthetic fibres fixed to the end of a handle, used to paint, varnish or spread a substance: Prese il pennello più sottile per i dettagli.^[4][5][15]
2. A brush for applying make-up to the face.^[4]
3. (figurative) The art of painting; the style of a particular painter.^[4][5]
4. (figurative) A painter.^[4][5]
5. (sports) A pencil dive, made with the body upright.^[4][5]
6. (botany) In a grape, the strand of vascular bundles and pulp that stays on the stalk when the berry is pulled off.^[4][6]
7. (hydraulics) A groyne: a dyke or barrier built out from a river or sea shore to slow or turn the current and protect the bank; also a narrow pier set at right angles to a quay.^[4][6][15]
8. (nautical) A small anchor fastened by a cable to an anchor already dropped, to increase its hold.^[4][15][16]
9. (physics) A narrow beam of light: pennello elettronico, the electron beam of a cathode-ray tube.^[5][15][16]

Word family

• pennellare
• pennellata
• pennellatura
• pennelleggiare
• pennellessa
• pennellificio
• pennellino
• spennellare
• spennellata
• spennellatura

pennello² signal pennant

Pronunciation

• /penˈnɛl.lo/^[1]

Forms

pennello m (plural pennelli)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the pennant is borrowed from Old French penel, which DELI, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli connect with penon (“pennant, standard”).^[2][3][5] GRADIT derives the French word from penne (“feather”).^[4] DEI and the GDLI list Old Occitan penel beside it, DEI also French penneau and Catalan penell, and both cite Medieval Latin penelus (“banner”), recorded at Bologna in 1288 and at Modena in 1306.^[14][9] The Italian word is related to pennone.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Sienese text of Mattasalà, of 1233–43.^[11] In the Old Italian texts the word means a cloth used as a military ensign, a banner.^[11] DELI's first record is in Guido delle Colonne, before 1290.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian said sotto pennello for “under a military ensign” and a pennello for “promptly and in good order”.^[11] The Serventese dei Lambertazzi e Geremei says of a fleeing army that it carried né bandiere né penello, “neither flags nor banner”, and Sanudo describes the banners of the small confraternities carried in procession.^[9] Zingarelli lists the obsolete phrases a pennello “with banners unfurled” and ad un pennello “under the same ensign”.^[15]

At Verona the tassa dei pennelli was a tax that confraternities and schools paid to the city.^[13] In modern Italian the word is a term of naval signalling, for the long tapering flags that stand for the numerals 0 to 9.^[13][6]

Timeline

• 1233–43 – The word appears in the Sienese text of Mattasalà.^[11]
• 1288 – Medieval Latin penelus “banner” is recorded at Bologna.^[14][9]
• Before 1290 – Guido delle Colonne uses pennello.^[2]
• 1306 – Penelus is recorded at Modena.^[14][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) A signal pennant shaped like a long, narrow isosceles triangle, often with a blunted tip: pennello numerico is one of the numeral pennants.^[4][6][13]
2. (archaic) A standard, banner.^[4][5][6]
3. (archaic, by extension) The soldiers gathered under one banner, or the members of a confraternity.^[4][5]
4. (plural) The tassa dei pennelli, a tax paid by confraternities at Verona.^[4][13]