piantaggine

Forms

piantaggine f (plural piantaggini)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin plantāgō (“plantain”), through the accusative plantāginem.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin word, found in Pliny, is formed from planta with the suffix that names plants.^[5][6] DEI, Zingarelli and Devoto take the Latin noun here as “sole of the foot”, for the shape of the leaves, as do Ernout and Meillet quoted by the DÉRom.^[5][7][8][6] Nocentini and Treccani gloss it as “plant”.^[3][9]

The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance feminine noun continued in every branch except Sardinian, Dalmatian and Catalan.^[6] It is Romanian pătlagină, Friulian plantani, French plantain, Occitan plantage, Spanish llantén and Portuguese tanchagem.^[4][3] DEI notes that it is lacking in southern Italy, where the northern Calabrian form is a loan; compare Piedmontese piantana.^[5] Devoto explains the double ⟨gg⟩ as the usual lengthening of the consonant after the stress in a word stressed on the third syllable from the end.^[8]

De Vaan reports that the Latin noun meaning “sole of the foot” and the one meaning “shoot” go back to the same form, perhaps through a verb meaning “to level the earth” or “to plant with the sole of the foot”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to the first half of the 13th century.^[2] DELI's first record is the Italian translation of Pietro Ispano in the 14th century, and DEI's the translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, which gives the plant with bistort against dysentery.^[11][5][12]

Semantic evolution

The plantain was valued in medicine: the Tesoro dei poveri prescribes its juice, under the names piantaggine, petacciuola or arnoglossa, for the eyes, and another early text its root against a scorpion's sting.^[12] The commentary on Dioscorides quoted by Tommaseo distinguishes a greater and a lesser plantain.^[12] Its folk names include petacciuola, lanciola and centonervia, and Nocentini notes cinquenervi, from the veins of the leaves.^{[7][13][3][5]} Linnaeus made Plantago the scientific name of the genus in 1735.^[5] The plant is still used for its astringent and depurative properties, and its seed heads as bird seed.^[13][9]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – GRADIT's date for the first record.^[2]
• 14th century – The Italian Pietro Ispano and Crescenzi name the plant.^[11][5]
• 1735 – Linnaeus names the genus Plantago.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) plantain: a herb of the genus Plantago, common in meadows and waste ground, with a rosette of leaves and small greenish flowers in spikes.^{[2][14][13][1]}
2. (botany, capitalised) The genus Plantago, which includes psyllium and buck's-horn plantain.^[2][14]

Related words

• pianta
• Latin plantago
• French plantain

Usage notes

GRADIT lists the species names piantaggine maggiore, minore, femmina and maschio, and piantaggine acquatica, the water plantain.^[2][14][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2895
6. ^ a b c Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier