picciolo

picciolo¹ leaf stalk

Pronunciation

• /pitˈt͡ʃɔ.lo/^[1]

Forms

picciolo m (plural piccioli)^[1] The literary variant is picciuolo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The word for the leaf stalk is inherited from Latin peciŏlus (“little foot; stalk”), a diminutive of pēs (“foot”).^[5][6][7][1] DELI and GRADIT treat this form as a spoken variant of classical petĭolus.^[5][7] Meyer-Lübke held that the manuscripts have only the spelling with ⟨c⟩, and that the ⟨t⟩ is a misreading of later editors.^[8] The OLD also counts the ⟨t⟩ spelling as an error and derives the word from a form *ped(i)ciolus, a diminutive of pediculus (“footstalk”).^[9] De Vaan records the word from Afranius on, with the sense “little foot”.^[10] Nocentini notes a late variant pecullus.^[6] The Latin word for “foot” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pṓds (“foot”).^[1][10]

The same Latin word gave Old French peçuel, Occitan pesol, Spanish pezuelo (“beginning of a woven cloth”) and Romanian picior (“foot”), while French has the learned pétiole.^[6][8] Meyer-Lübke also lists Old Italian pedicciuolo, and records that at Lucca the form picciuolo also names the rung of a ladder.^[8] Its learned doublet is peziolo.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Ristoro d'Arezzo, 1282, for the stalk that bears the leaf blade and joins it to the stem, and for the stalk of a fruit.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The botanical sense has not changed: the cylindrical part of the leaf that joins the blade to the stem, and in common use the stalk of a fruit or flower.^[7][11][12] Derivatives appeared over the centuries: piccioletto in Cellini in the 16th century, piccioluto, a variety of fig with a thick stalk, in 1625, and picciolato in the 19th century.^[13] The verb spicciolare, “to pull off the stalk”, dates from the 16th century.^[6]

Timeline

• 1282 – Ristoro d'Arezzo uses the word for the leaf and fruit stalk.^[5]
• 16th century – Spicciolare “to strip from the stalk” is recorded.^[6]
• 1625 – Piccioluto, a fig variety with a thick stalk, is recorded.^[13]
• 19th century – The adjective picciolato appears.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The petiole, the slender stalk that holds a leaf and joins it to the stem.^[7][11][4]
2. The stalk of a fruit or flower, a peduncle.^[7][11][3]

Word family

• spicciolare
• picciolato
• piccioluto

picciolo² small

Etymology tree of picciolo²

inherited borrowed derived

Italian piccolo

English piccolo

Italian picciolo

Pronunciation

• /ˈpit.t͡ʃo.lo/^[1]

Forms

picciolo (feminine picciola, masculine plural piccioli, feminine plural picciole)^[1]

Etymology

The word for “small” is from Italian piccolo: a variant of it that took the ⟨cci⟩ of piccino.^{[11][14][3][12][2]} Treccani calls it an endearing form of the same adjective and refers to the other for the palatal sound.^[15] Nocentini takes it as a suffix variant of the second word, GRADIT from a root ⟨picci-⟩ with the diminutive suffix -olo, and the DEI as a back-formation from picciolino.^[6][7][13]

Nocentini traces both adjectives to a sound-symbolic ⟨pi-⟩ with several consonant endings that express smallness, and compares Late Latin pisinnus and pitinnus, the base of French petit.^[6] DELI sets out the long debate on the two words.^[5]

The coin is the adjective used as a noun.^[14][15][12] It was the name of the denaro reduced in weight and value once the first grossi were struck.^[11][15][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date the adjective to the 12th–13th century, and Zingarelli to the 12th.^[7][6][2] The DEI's first record is in the Novellino, in the 13th century.^[13] The GDLI's first quotation, from Brunetto Latini's Rettorica, has a lord leaving his ship for a small boat (una picciola barca).^[16]

Semantic evolution

The form was long the literary one.^[15][12] Dante calls Mercury “the smallest star of the sky” (la più picciola stella del cielo) in the Convivio, and Petrarch writes of a sailor's “small boat” (picciol legno).^[16] It could also mean short in time, as in Petrarch's line that love in a woman's heart lasts “a little time” (picciol tempo), and humble, as in Boccaccio's picciol servidor di Natan.^[7][14][15] DELI quotes Tommaseo–Bellini: in Tuscan speech piccolo had almost replaced picciolo, but the written language kept it, and in verse piccol tempo would sound wrong to some ears.^[5]

The DEI records the coin from the 14th century, in Boccaccio, beside picciolino in Brunetto Latini.^[13] In a novella of Boccaccio a man finds “four piccioli more than there should have been”.^[17][15] In Tuscany the word came to mean any coin of little value, and in the plural money in general, as in Pascoli's shoes “that did not cost a picciolo”.^[11][15] Davanzati's Tacitus has fino a un picciolo, “to the last penny”.^[17] The picciolo quadrato was an old Florentine measure of area.^[15][7]

Timeline

• 12th–13th century – The adjective is first recorded.^[7][6]
• 13th century – The Novellino uses it.^[13]
• 14th century – The coin picciolo is recorded in Boccaccio.^[13][14]
• Second half of the 17th century – Impicciolire “to make smaller” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary) Small, little.^[7][14][2]
2. (literary) brief, lasting a short time: picciol tempo.^[7][14][3]
3. (figurative, literary) humble, of low condition.^[7][14][1]

Noun

1. (obsolete) A child.^[7][2]
2. (numismatics) The denaro reduced in weight and value after the first grossi were struck, and in particular an old Florentine coin.^[11][14][15]
3. (Tuscan) A coin of little value, a spicciolo: non valere un picciolo, to be worth nothing, and non avere un picciolo, to be penniless.^[7][4][3]

Word family

• impicciolire
• rimpicciolire
• piccioletto
• picciolino
• picciolezza