pesco

Forms

pesco m (plural peschi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pessicus, from Latin persicus (“peach tree”), properly “Persian”.^[2][3][4][1] GRADIT sets up the variant *pessicum beside Persicum (understood mālum (“apple”)), because the tree was thought to come from Persia.^[4] Tommaseo already saw the word as a contracted persico.^[5] This learned doublet comes from the same Latin word.^[1]

The tree came from China and reached Rome through Persia.^[3] The DÉRom reconstructs Proto-Romance */ˈpɛrsik-u/ “peach tree” from cognates in Sardinian, Romanian, Italian and Spanish.^[6] Sardinian and Romanian show that the name goes back to the oldest, common stage of Proto-Romance.^[6] These are Sardinian péssighe, Romanian piersec and Old Spanish pejigo.^[3][7] The fruit is pesca, from the Latin neuter plural persica.^[2][3]

Persicum (“peach”) is short for persicum pōmum (“Persian fruit”), from Persae (“Persians”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Zucchero Bencivenni's Santà of 1310, in the sense of the fruit tree, and the word also stood for the fruit itself.^[8] DELI's first dates are the Italian Crescenzi of about 1350 and the Italian Pietro Ispano.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Italian Crescenzi calls the peach tree “a well-known tree, small, which grows quickly and lasts a short time”.^[9] In the Decameron a woman is told to put things at the foot of a peach tree beside a little meadow.^[9]

The sense “peach” (the fruit) is now obsolete.^[10][11] The plantation, pescheto, is recorded before 1916 in G. Gozzano.^[2] The pesco noce bears smooth-skinned fruit, and pesco armeniaco is a rare name of the apricot tree, translating the scientific Latin.^[12][13] Fior di pesco names a pink colour.^[13]

Timeline

• 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses pesco.^[8]
• c. 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses it.^[2]
• Before 1916 – Gozzano uses pescheto.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The peach tree (Prunus persica), a fruit tree of the rose family with pink flowers that open before the leaves.^{[4][12][14][15][1]}
2. (obsolete) The peach, the fruit (pesca).^{[4][10][11][8]}

Word family

• pescheto
• peschino

Related words

• pesca
• persico
• Latin persicus

Usage notes

GRADIT lists a regional homograph pesco “boulder, rocky point”, recorded before 1806, of uncertain origin.^[4] It belongs to central and southern Italy and is common in mountain place names, such as Pescocostanzo, Pescopagano and Pesco Sannita.^[13] Medieval Latin pesclus “rocky summit” is recorded in 1229 at Marcellina in Lazio.^[16][17][13] The GDLI quotes Galanti on its use in Samnium for a large stone.^[17]

An old pesco is also a short past participle of pescare, in Berni.^[16][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 168
10. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ 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
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2875
17. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 169