piantagione

Forms

piantagione f (plural piantagioni)^[1] Old forms include piantatione and plantazione.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin plantātiō (“planting; propagation from cuttings”), through the accusative.^{[3][4][5][1][6]} DEI and Tommaseo cite the Latin noun from Pliny and the Vulgate, while Nocentini and the GDLI call it Late Latin.^[7][8][3][9] It is a noun of action from plantō (“to plant”), which first meant to press in with the sole of the foot, from planta (“sole of the foot”).^[3][6]

Devoto explains the ending ⟨-gione⟩ in place of ⟨-zione⟩ as the northern softening of ⟨-tiōn-⟩, later given a Tuscan form.^[10] The TLIO instead derives the word from piantare.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Pisan sermons on Genesis of Giordano da Pisa (1308).^[2] DELI's first dated sense, the work of planting trees, comes from the Tuscan translation of Crescenzi's treatise on farming, about 1350.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant both the act of planting and an area under particular plants.^[2] A Tuscan translation of Saint Augustine speaks of Noah's planting of the vine, and Tommaseo cites a figurative use for a harmful heresy that sprang up in the early Church.^[9][8]

The sense of a piece of land planted with one kind of plant is in Bernardo Davanzati, before 1606.^[11] DEI records a plantation worked by black slaves in 1871.^[7] Today the usual sense is a large farm growing one crop, typically in the tropics, such as coffee, tobacco or cotton.^[4][12]

Timeline

• 1308 – Giordano da Pisa uses piantagione.^[2]
• Before 1320 – GRADIT's date for the first record.^[4]
• About 1350 – The translation of Crescenzi uses it for the planting of trees.^[11]
• Before 1606 – Davanzati uses it for land planted with one kind of plant.^[11]
• 1871 – A plantation worked by slaves is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (uncommon) The planting of plants, their setting in their permanent place.^[4][5][12]
2. An area of land planted with vegetables or fruit trees of one kind, or the plants themselves: una piantagione di meli.^[4][13][14]
3. A plantation: a large farm growing one crop, especially in the tropics: una piantagione di cacao.^[4][13][12]

Related words

• piantare
• pianta
• Latin plantātiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2895
8. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
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, 293
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli