piazza

Forms

piazza f (plural piazze)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian piaza, Old Italian piassa, Old Italian piàccia and Old Italian plàcia.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin platea (“broad street; square”), through a Vulgar Latin *plattia.^[3][4][5][1] Körting explains the doubled consonant by the influence of Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flat”).^[6] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa), short for πλατεῖα ὁδός (plateîa hodós, “broad way”), the feminine of πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat”).^[4][3][1] The learned platea continues a Latin variant with a long ⟨e⟩.^[7][8]

The same word is French place, Occitan plasa, Catalan plassa, Spanish plaza and Portuguese praça, Logudorese piatta and Engadine plazza.^[4][9] The Latin word also passed into German Platz, and English place “position” comes from the French word.^[4] From Italian it was borrowed as Romanian piață and Hungarian piac.^[9][10][1]

Some later senses follow French.^[3][4] DELI notes that the sense “post, job” is often taken for a calque of the French word, although the French sense is recorded later (1611) than the Italian; piazzaforte renders place forte (1553) and piazzare the verb placer, while it is not certain that piazza d'armi copies place d'armes.^[3][4] DEI also takes the sense “room for one person”, as in a double bed, from the French word.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the 13th-century Elegia giudeo-italiana, in the sense of an open space in a town, at a crossing of streets.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

The square was the market place, and piazza meant “market” from the early 14th century;^[3][10][11] Bernardo Davanzati used it for the merchants of a town.^[3][10][11] Before 1313 Arrighetto used it for the people gathered in the square, and the sense of the populace, often scornfully, as opposed to its rulers, is still alive in the language of newspapers.^[3][5][8]

In the 16th century the word was used in military language for a post in an army (1564) and for a fortress (1556–58), and later for a job in general.^[3][11] Actors and travelling performers called the town where they played their piazza (1842).^[3] In Florence, by a joke drawn from a board game, a bald patch was una piazza (1863).^[3] From the commercial sense came piazzista, a travelling salesman (1900).^[3]

English borrowed piazza in 1583 for an Italian square; in the 1640s it was applied by mistake to the arcades of Covent Garden, and in American English (1724) to a veranda.^[12][13] German has Piazza from 1579 and French from 1750.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – First record, in the Elegia giudeo-italiana.^[5][2]
• Before 1313 – Arrighetto uses the word for the people in the square.^[3]
• Early 14th century – Piazza “market” is recorded.^[3]
• 1556–1558 – The sense “fortress” appears in Sienese documents.^[3]
• 1564 – G. Castriotto uses it for a military post.^[3]
• 1579 – German Piazza is recorded.^[12]
• 1583 – English piazza is recorded.^[12][13]
• 1677 – Piazzata “noisy scene” is recorded.^[3]
• 1812 – Piazzale and piazzare are recorded in Bernardoni.^[3]
• 1863 – Piazza “bald patch” is recorded in Tuscany.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A square, plaza: an open area in a town surrounded by buildings, usually where several streets meet: Ci vediamo in piazza alle sei.^[5][14][8]
2. The people gathered in a square; the populace, the public, as opposed to the government: il voto della piazza.^[5][8][15]
3. (commerce) A market, a place where business is done: una piazza importante per i tessuti.^[8][16][15]
4. (military) A fortified town or stronghold: piazza forte.^[8][3]
5. (theatre) A town where a company performs.^[8][16][15]
6. Room, space; a place, as in letto a una piazza (single bed) and letto a due piazze (double bed).^[16][8][1]
7. (sport) A placing in a race or ranking: piazza d'onore.^[16]
8. (jocular) A bald patch on the head.^[16][17][1]

Word family

• piazzale
• piazzare
• piazzaforte
• piazzetta
• piazzola
• piazzata
• piazzista
• spiazzo
• spiazzare

Related words

• platea
• piatto
• French place
• English piazza

Usage notes

Common phrases are mettere in piazza, to make public;^[15][16][14] scendere in piazza, to demonstrate; and fare piazza pulita, to clear everything away.^[15][16][14] Piazza is also a form of the verb piazzare.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2898
11. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
12. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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
15. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
18. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org