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piccolo

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word piccolo

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
late 12th century, rent records of the Badia di Coltibuono
From
Latin *pikk-

Pronunciation

  • /ˈpik.ko.lo/[1]

Forms

piccolo (feminine piccola, masculine plural piccoli, feminine plural piccole, comparative più piccolo or minore, superlative minimo, diminutive piccolìno or piccolétto (“short person”), double diminutive (uncommon) piccolettìno, augmentative piccolóne, diminutive-augmentative piccolòtto (“short and stock person”))[1] The variant picciolo was long accepted in writing, though Tuscan speech preferred piccolo.[2][3] Older spellings include Old Italian picolo and picullo.[4]

Etymology

Its origin is not certain.[2][5] Most sources take it as from Vulgar Latin *pikk- (“small”), an expressive, sound-symbolic root for smallness that has no Latin record, with the diminutive suffix -olo.[5][6][7][8][9] Meyer-Lübke grouped under this root Romanian pic (“drop”) and dialect words for a small child or a boy in Sardinia, Friuli and Piedmont.[8] Nocentini puts Spanish pequeño and Portuguese pequeno on the same root, but Meyer-Lübke thought a link possible only by assimilation of the vowel.[5][8]

DELI sends the reader to piccino, whose relation to ⟨piccolo⟩ it calls unclear.[2] It cites Giovan Battista Francescato, who saw beside ⟨pikk-⟩ a second root ⟨pitš-⟩, both very productive in Romance.[2] In late antiquity there were Late Latin pisinnus and pitinnus “small”, the source of French petit.[5] Devoto took the word instead as a diminutive of picca (“pike, point”), a small thing being “a little point”, and compared the negatives mica and punto.[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the rent records of the Badia di Coltibuono, in Tuscany, at the end of the 12th century, with the sense “below the usual size”.[2] Bono Giamboni, before 1292, asks: “Che aguaglio può esser da la cosa finita a quella che non ha fine, da la cosa piccola alla grande…?” (what comparison can there be between the finite and the infinite, between the small thing and the great?).[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “short in time” is recorded in 1288, “young” in Dino Compagni in 1310–1312, and “petty, mean” in Dante in 1304–1308.[2] As a noun piccolo “child” is in Giordano da Pisa before 1311, and “the young of an animal” in 1833.[2] In piccolo “on a small scale” appears in 1666 and nel mio piccolo “in my small way” in 1865.[2] In the Middle Ages piccolo was also a coin, the reduced denier (Medieval Latin denarius parvus) minted after the first silver grossi of the 13th century.[11] Piccolo borghese is a 20th-century calque of French petit bourgeois.[12]

The word passed into other languages chiefly through music.[13] English has piccolo for a small upright piano from 1831 and for the small flute (flauto piccolo) from 1841, and German Pikkolo “piccolo flute” from 1801.[13][5] German and Austrian Piccolo also named a young waiter or bellboy from 1838, and French piccolo a light local wine from 1876.[13]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – Piccolo appears in the rent records of the Badia di Coltibuono.[2]
  • 1288 – It is used of a short time.[2]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for “petty, mean”.[2]
  • Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses it as a noun “child”.[2]
  • 1801 – German Pikkolo “piccolo flute” is recorded.[13]
  • 1841 – English piccolo “small flute” is recorded.[13]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. small, little, below the usual size: Abitano in una casa piccola ma luminosa.[6][14][7]
  2. The smaller of two or of a series: Prendo la tazza piccola.[6][14][15]
  3. Of a person, short or slight: È piccolo, ma fortissimo.[6][7][15]
  4. young: Quando ero piccolo vivevamo in campagna.[6][7][16]
  5. Short in time; small in number or amount: Facciamo una piccola pausa.[6][7][15]
  6. Minor, of little importance or value: È solo un piccolo graffio.[6][7][16]
  7. Of modest social or economic standing; small-scale: i piccoli negozi del quartiere.[6][7]
  8. (figurative) petty, narrow-minded: idee piccole e meschine.[7][16]
  9. Before a famous name, someone or something like it on a smaller scale: un piccolo Mozart.[6][16]

Noun

  1. A small child; also the young of an animal: La gatta allatta i suoi piccoli.[2][16][14]
  2. in piccolo: on a small scale, nel mio piccolo: in my modest way.[2][15]

Word family

  • piccolezza
  • impiccolire
  • rimpiccolire
  • piccoletto
  • piccolino
  • piccolotto
  • piccino
  • picciolo
  • picca
  • picco
  • English piccolo

Usage notes

The comparative is più piccolo or minore, the superlative piccolissimo or minimo.[15][1] Set phrases include piccolo schermo “television”, piccola posta “letters to the editor” and fare le ore piccole “to stay up very late”.[15][14][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 774
  10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 330
  11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 364
  12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2903
  13. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  14. ^ a b c d 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 f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  16. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Piccolo.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/piccolo. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·