pergola

Forms

pergola f (plural pergole)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian pergula, Old Italian perghola and Old Italian perchole.^[2] Venetian used pergola for a gallery or a pulpit.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pergula (“projecting structure, balcony, gallery; vine arbour”).^[4][5][6][1] Zingarelli calls it a learned word.^[7] The Latin word survives in the dialects as Friulian piergule and also Aromanian pergura, everywhere with the sense “vine arbour”;^[8][9] Albanian pergulë is a loan from it.^[8][9]

The origin of pergula is uncertain.^[10][1][11] DELI, GRADIT and Zingarelli call it pre-Indo-European.^[4][6][7] Nocentini takes it as “something that juts out”, from pergō (“to go on, proceed”), itself regō (“to guide”) with the prefix per-, and the OLD also gives it as pergō with a diminutive suffix.^[5][12] De Vaan notes that it could be the diminutive of a noun for a pole or frame and so be related to Lithuanian pérgas (“canoe”), Old Church Slavonic прагъ (pragŭ) and Old Norse forkr (“bar, stick”), but finds the meanings too far apart.^[10][1] Devoto linked it with a Mediterranean stem for a hut.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Roman Miracole de Roma of the mid-13th century, where it translates the golden pergula of a Latin text as a loggia.^[2] The Tuscan record that DELI dates 1293, from Prato, has the sense of a frame of poles for climbing plants: pertichelle… alle pergole dell'orto, poles “used for the pergolas of the garden”.^[4][14]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named the framework of uprights and crosspieces that held up vines and gave shade beneath, and figuratively a shelter; it also named a variety of grape, the later uva pergola or pergolese, recorded in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[2][9][15] The sense “balcony, loggia” lasted in older and regional use;^[16][6] Carducci wrote of a room with a pergola over the lake.^[16][6] Pergolato, a large pergola or a row of them, is in Boccaccio in 1353.^[4] In the architecture of Christian basilicas the word was used from 1973 for a colonnade standing on a parapet.^[4][7]

Italian lent the word widely.^[1][5] English pergola meant a balcony before 1641 and the garden structure from about 1664.^[17] DEI dates it 1654, and Etymonline to the 1670s.^[9][11] German has Pergola from 1611, and French from 1839.^[17]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – Pergola is used in the Roman Miracole de Roma.^[2]
• 1293 – A Prato account names the poles for the garden pergolas.^[4][14]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses pergolato.^[4]
• 1611 – German Pergola is recorded.^[17]
• Before 1641 – English pergola “balcony” is recorded.^[17]
• 1839 – French pergola is recorded.^[17]
• 1973 – The architectural sense of a colonnade in a basilica is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. pergola, arbour: a frame of wooden or iron trellises on two rows of posts, flat or vaulted, that holds up vines or other climbing plants and gives shade in gardens and on terraces; also the plants that cover it.^[6][18][15]
2. (viticulture) A variety of grape, the uva pergola or pergolese.^[18][15][6]
3. (archaic, regional) A balcony or small loggia.^[6][15][16]
4. (architecture) In early Christian basilicas, a colonnade standing on a parapet; the iconostasis (iconostasi).^[7][6]

Word family

• pergolato
• pergolese
• pergolo
• impergolare

Related words

• pergamo
• Latin pergula
• pergola

Usage notes

DELI lists the heraldic pergola, recorded in 1895, as a separate headword: a charge formed by a lowered pale and a reversed chevron meeting in the centre of the shield in the shape of a Y, the pall of English heraldry;^{[4][6][7][16][1]} DELI compares it with French pairle (1658), of obscure origin, and GRADIT, Zingarelli and Treccani also keep it apart from the arbour word.^{[4][6][7][16][1]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2850
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
17. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
18. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier