pesca

pesca¹ peach

Pronunciation

• /ˈpɛs.ka/^[1]

Forms

pesca f (plural pesche)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the peach is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pessica, a form recorded in the Appendix Probi and the glossaries.^[1][2][3][4] It is from Late Latin persica, the neuter plural of Latin persicum (“peach”) taken as a feminine singular.^[5][6][1] The Latin word is short for a phrase meaning “Persian fruit”, from Persia: like most fruit trees, the peach came to Rome from Asia.^[5][6][1]

The same word is French pêche, Occitan persega, Catalan préssec, Portuguese pêssigo, Sardinian péssighe and Romanian piersecă.^[6][4] The Spanish form is albérchiga, through Mozarabic with the Arabic article, for a kind of clingstone peach or the apricot.^[6][4] Latin also passed it to German: Middle High German pfersich, modern German Pfirsich.^[6][4]

The uncontracted pèrsica survives in the dialects of central and southern Italy, and the older language had persico for the fruit and the tree.^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine account of 1288 that lists money spent on figs, pears and peaches (fichi e pere e pesche).^[9] DELI's first record is a sonnet by Meo de' Tolomei, whose mother prescribes eight or ten peaches in the morning against quartan and tertian fever.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already named varieties: the Italian Palladio has pesca armenica and pesca duracina, the clingstone peach.^[9][10] In the 15th century Luigi Pulci used pesca for a bruise from a blow and for the blow itself, and the sense lives on in Tuscan.^[3][8] Verga used it for the dark rings under the eyes.^[8]

Pesca Melba, peaches with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce, was named by the chef Escoffier after the singer Nellie Melba.^[8][11] As an invariable adjective after a noun, pesca is a pinkish-yellow colour.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 1288 – A Florentine account lists pesche among fruit bought.^[9]
• Before 1300 – Meo de' Tolomei uses pèsche.^[5]
• 15th century – Luigi Pulci uses pesca for a bruise.^[3]
• 1729 – P. A. Micheli names the varieties pesca albèrges and pesca ammirabile.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A peach: the fruit of the pesco, with velvety skin and sweet, juicy white or yellow flesh round a stone: Ho comprato un cestino di pesche gialle.^[2][13][14]
2. A peach colour, pinkish yellow.^[2]
3. (figurative, Tuscan) A bruise left by a blow; the blow itself.^[2][13][8]
4. (figurative, colloquial, usually plural) A dark ring or bag under the eyes.^[2][14][8]

Adjective

1. (invariable, after a noun) Peach-coloured: una sciarpa rosa pesca.^[2][8][12]

Word family

• pescanoce
• nocepesca

pesca² fishing

Etymology tree of pesca²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin piscis

Catalan peix

French poisson

Italian pesce

Romanian pește

Spanish pez

Latin piscor

Italian pescare

Italian pesca

Spanish pescar

From the same root · pesca²

Latin piscārius ← piscis

Latin piscīna ← piscis

Latin piscōsus ← piscis

Romanian pescui ← pește

Latin piscātor ← piscor

Spanish pescador ← piscor

Pronunciation

• /ˈpes.ka/^[1]

Forms

pesca f (plural pesche)^[1]

Etymology

The word for fishing is a deverbal noun from Italian pescare (“to fish”).^[5][6][2][1] The verb is from Latin piscārī (“to fish”), from piscis (“fish”).^[6][5] The DEI compares French pêche (1317) and Spanish pesca.^[3]

DELI dates it to 1534 and GRADIT to before 1535, while Nocentini and Devoto–Oli give the 14th century and Sabatini–Coletti the 16th.^{[5][2][6][13][14]} It is pronounced with a closed /e/, unlike the peach with an open one.^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are D. Ludovisi in 1534 and Francesco Berni before 1535, for the action of fishing;^[5][10] Berni writes of the many nets cast in the sea, rivers and marshes per potersi alle pesche esercitare (“to practise fishing”).^[5][10]

Semantic evolution

It soon also meant the catch and the right to fish, and the Tuscan proverb al levar delle nasse si vede la pesca (the catch is seen when the traps are lifted) means that results show at the end.^[10][2] It extends to gathering coral, pearls or sponges.^[2][11]

A lottery in which tickets are drawn from an urn, some of them winning prizes, is called pesca from 1891, now mostly as pesca di beneficenza.^[5][13] In southern Italy the phrase vatte a pesca (1871) means “try and find it”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1317 – French pêche “fishing” is recorded.^[3]
• 1534 – D. Ludovisi uses pesca “fishing”.^[5]
• Before 1535 – Francesco Berni uses it.^[5]
• 1871 – The southern phrase vatte a pesca is recorded.^[3]
• 1891 – The sense “lottery” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. fishing: catching fish or other animals of the sea or fresh water, for food, trade or sport: Domenica andiamo a pesca sul lago.^[2][13][14]
2. Gathering coral, pearls and the like.^[2][13]
3. A catch, the fish taken at one time.^[2][13][14]
4. (figurative) A search, often a lucky one: andare a pesca di voti.^[2][13]
5. A lottery in which folded tickets are drawn from an urn, some of them winning prizes.^[13][14][15]
6. (nautical) A fishing boat.^[1]

Word family

• pescheria
• motopesca