pidocchio

Forms

pidocchio m (plural pidocchi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian pioclo, Old Italian pedocchio and Old Italian pidochio; dialects have pedocio and pedogio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin peduclus (“louse”), a contracted form recorded in Petronius,^[4][5] of Latin peduculus, beside classical pēdiculus, a diminutive of pēdis (“louse”).^[4][6][7][1] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance /peˈdʊkl-u/, continued everywhere, beside /peˈdɪkl-u/, which survives only in eastern Ladin.^[8] GRADIT instead derives the diminutive from pēs (“foot”).^[9]

The word is found in every Romance language: Old French pouil (modern French pou), Occitan pezolh, Catalan poll, Spanish piojo, Portuguese piolho, Sardinian peùgu, Dalmatian pedoklo and Romanian păduche.^[6][10][8]

De Vaan connects Latin pēdis with Avestan pazdu- (“beetle, maggot”) and reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *pesd- (“annoying insect”).^[11][5] Nocentini relates both to the root of Latin pēdō (“to break wind”): lice were crushed between the thumbnails with a little pop, and the Sardinian name for the thumb, ischizzapeùgu, means “louse-squasher”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form pioclo in the Veronese poem Della caducità della vita umana, of the first half of the 13th century;^[4][3][6] pidocchio itself follows later in that century.^[4][3][6] The sense is the louse, the small parasitic insect that lives on the human body, especially on the scalp.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the insect the word came to stand for meanness.^[4][9] Pidocchieria “sordid stinginess” is in Boccaccio (1353), and pidocchioso, first “full of lice” in a Lucca document of 1357, meant “stingy” in Aretino (1534); Venetian peochioso “miserly” is recorded in 1829.^[4] The Venetian and Triestine adjective pedoco also means “stingy”.^[10] Today pidocchio itself is a skinflint, and a pidocchio rifatto or rivestito is an upstart who shows off his new wealth.^[9][12][13]

From the 17th century the name was extended to the aphids and scale insects of plants, and later to other parasites, such as pidocchio dei libri (the booklouse) and pidocchio pollino (the chicken louse).^[5][12][13] A Tuscan proverb says Alla guerra si va pieno di danari, e si torna pieno di vizii e di pidocchi (“one goes to war full of money and comes back full of vices and lice”).^[14] German borrowed the word as pedocki in 1479.^[15]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – Pioclo appears in the Veronese Della caducità della vita umana.^[4][3]
• 13th century – Pidocchio is recorded.^[4]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses pidocchieria “stinginess”.^[4]
• 1357 – Pidocchioso “full of lice” is recorded at Lucca.^[4]
• 1479 – German pedocki is recorded.^[15]
• 1534 – Aretino uses pidocchioso for “stingy”.^[4]
• 17th century – The name is applied to plant lice.^[5]
• 1698 – Impidocchiare is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) A louse, a small, flat, wingless insect that lives as a parasite on humans and feeds on their blood, especially Pediculus humanus, in the head louse and the body louse.^[9][12][13]
2. (zoology) Any of many insects that live as parasites on animals or plants, such as aphids.^[9][12][13]
3. (figurative, derogatory) A stingy, petty person, a skinflint: Quel pidocchio non ha lasciato neanche la mancia.^[9][12][13]

Word family

• pidocchieria
• pidocchioso
• spidocchiare
• impidocchiare
• pidocchiaia
• pidocchietto
• pidocchino
• pidocchiume

Related words

• pediculo
• Latin pēdis

Usage notes

Pidocchio rifatto or rivestito is an upstart who flaunts newly gained wealth.^[12][13] The plural is pidocchi.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2906
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
9. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it