pera

Forms

pera f (plural pere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pira, the plural of Latin pirum (“pear”) taken as a feminine singular.^[2][3][4][1] The same change gave French poire, Occitan pera, Catalan pera, Spanish pera, Portuguese pera, Sardinian pira and Romanian pară.^[3][5] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance neuter: the feminine made from its plural covers most of the Romance area, while a masculine made from the singular lives on only in dialects of the central area, from Istria to Franco-Provençal.^[6] Latin also passed the word into Germanic: Old High German pira or bira, whence German Birne, and English pear.^[3]

The Latin noun is a loan from a Mediterranean language, like Ancient Greek ἄπιον (ápion, “pear”);^[7][2][3] DELI and Nocentini call it pre-Indo-European.^[7][2][3] De Vaan rejects a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₂pis-o-, which would not explain the ⟨i⟩ of the Latin word.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Francesco da Barberino in 1314, for the fleshy fruit of the pear tree: someone who handles a knife so clumsily ch'al mondar d'una pera / passa da terza infin ora di nona “that peeling one pear takes him from terce to nones”.^[2][8] Zingarelli dates the word to the 13th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio's Decameron has a woman who longs for “some of those pears”.^[8] In the old language the plural could also be pera.^[8] Tommaseo lists dozens of pear varieties, from moscadella and bergamotta to butirra and spadona.^[10]

The shape of the fruit gave many transferred senses: an object shaped like a pear is recorded in Cellini in 1571, the phrase a pera in 1602, and the joking “head” in Giusti in 1835.^[2] The rubber bulb for enemas, pera or peretta, gave the drug users' slang farsi una pera “to shoot up heroin”.^[3] A pera is also said of work or talk that is botched or makes no sense.^[11][9]

Proverbs include al contadino non far sapere quant'è buono il cacio con le pere, meaning that people should not be told what they are entitled to, and cadere come una pera cotta, to fall asleep at once, fall in love at once or be easily taken in.^[12][9]

Timeline

• 1314 – Francesco da Barberino uses pera.^[2][4]
• 1571 – Cellini uses it for a pear-shaped object.^[2]
• 1602 – A pera “pear-shaped” is recorded.^[2]
• 1835 – Giusti uses pera for the head.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pear, the edible fruit of the pero, narrower towards one end, with yellow, green or brown skin and juicy flesh: una pera cotta al vino.^[4][11][13]
2. A pear-shaped light switch.^[4][11]
3. (medicine) A rubber bulb for enemas.^[4][11]
4. (humorous) The head.^[4][11][13]
5. (boxing) A punchball.^[4][11]
6. (slang) An injection of a drug, especially heroin: farsi una pera.^[4][13][9]
7. a pera: pear-shaped;^[11][9][12] (figurative, colloquial) botched or nonsensical: un ragionamento a pera.^[11][9][12]

Word family

• peretta
• perina

Related words

• pero
• Latin pirum
• French poire

Usage notes

Pera with an open ⟨e⟩ is a separate, obsolete word meaning “bag, pouch”, from Latin pēra, from Greek pḗra “wallet”, recorded before 1306.^[4][11][8] Jacopone da Todi wrote Tener voglio la via vera, / né sacco voglio né pera “I want to keep to the true way, and want neither sack nor bag”.^[8][12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse