pertica

Forms

pertica f (plural pertiche)^[1] Northern dialects have forms with a voiced consonant, such as Venetian pertega and pertiga.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pĕrtĭca, first a long stick and then a rod for measuring.^{[4][5][6][7][1]} The same word is French perche (whence Catalan perxa, Spanish percha and Portuguese percha), Occitan perga and Sardinian bertiga (Logudorese).^[5][8][9] The French word is also a measure of length and area.^[8]

The Latin word has no clear connections.^[4][10] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *pertikā- with a question mark: Oscan 𐌐𐌄𐌓𐌄𐌊 (perek) is a measure of length, and Umbrian perca means a rod or badge.^[11][5][1] Comparisons with Ancient Greek πτόρθος (ptórthos, “sprout”) and a Sanskrit word for penis do not convince him.^[11][1] Treccani calls it a word of Italic origin.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from B. Giamboni, before 1292, for a long stick or thin pole.^[4][3] The GDLI quotes Giamboni's description of a curved blade in pertiche lunghe messo to cut the rigging of enemy ships.^[2]

Semantic evolution

As a land measure pertica is recorded in the Medieval Latin of Treviso in 768, and in Italian before 1406, in F. da Buti;^[4][13] DEI notes it as a measure of northern Italy.^[4][13] The pole was used to beat fruit from trees, to support plants and for falconry: an Aesop fable has a sparrowhawk waiting in sulla pertica to be fed.^[2][14]

From the 19th century the word is also used of a very tall, thin person, said first of a woman (1863) and then of anyone (1865), and in 1933 it names the climbing pole of the gymnasium.^[4] French borrowed the nautical word as perteque (1622) and German as Pertica (1838).^[3]

Timeline

• 768 – Pertica as a measure is recorded in the Medieval Latin of Treviso.^[4]
• Before 1292 – B. Giamboni uses pertica for a long stick.^[4]
• Before 1406 – F. da Buti uses it for a land measure.^[4]
• Before 1476 – Perticone “big pole” appears in Masuccio.^[4]
• 1622 – French perteque is recorded.^[3]
• 1838 – German Pertica is recorded.^[3]
• 1863 – Pertica is used of a very tall, thin woman.^[4]
• 1865 – Sperticare is first recorded.^[5]
• 1933 – The gymnastic climbing pole is first recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long, fairly thin pole or stick, often cut from a straight coppice shoot, used for many purposes, especially in farming and river navigation: Scuotevano i rami del noce con una pertica.^{[6][15][16][12]}
2. (figurative, colloquial) A very tall, thin person; a beanpole.^{[6][15][16][12]}
3. (humorous, in the plural) Very long legs.^[6][16][12]
4. (sport) A smooth vertical pole in a gymnasium, used for climbing exercises.^{[6][15][16][7]}
5. (falconry) A perch used to train hunting falcons.^[6][15][16]
6. (forestry) A long shoot growing from a stump; a palina.^[6][15][12]
7. (historical) An old unit of length, ten feet in ancient Rome; also a unit of length and land area of varying value used before the metric system, in Italy about 3 metres and about 600 square metres.^{[6][15][16][7]}

Word family

• perticone
• perticata
• pertichetta
• perticare
• perticara
• sperticare
• sperticato

Related words

• Latin pertica
• French perche

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. 13, 124
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c 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. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ 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
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2867
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse