pidocchioso

Forms

pidocchioso (feminine pidocchiosa, masculine plural pidocchiosi, feminine plural pidocchiose)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian pedochiosa and Sicilian piduchiusu.^[2] GDLI also records pedocchioso and pedochioso.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin peduculōsus (“lousy”), a Late Latin variant of classical pēdiculōsus, formed on pedŭculus (“louse”).^{[4][5][6][3][7]} DEI finds it in the Latin glossaries and notes that the formation is shared by Italian, Romanian and Gallo-Romance.^[8] Wiktionary gives a Vulgar Latin *peduclōsus as the intermediate form.^[1] Sabatini–Coletti, Treccani and the TLIO see an Italian formation instead, by which it is from Italian pidocchio + -oso.^[9][10][2]

The base noun is from Late Latin pedŭclus, the Late Latin contraction of that diminutive of pēdis (“louse”), whose origin DELI calls uncertain.^[11][4] Nocentini connects it with the root Proto-Indo-European *pezd- of pēdō (“to break wind”), perhaps from the small crack a louse makes when it is crushed between the thumbnails.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the TLIO is the Sicilian glossary Declarus of Senisio, of 1348, where the word describes a body, especially a scalp, infested with lice.^[2] DELI's first record is a Lucca document of 1357, from a collection of insults.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was strongly pejorative, suggesting dirt and deep poverty as well as lice.^[3] Boiardo says of a king's followers that his people are tutta pedochiosa (“all lousy”).^[3]

The figurative sense “stingy, mean” appears in Aretino in 1534, in a story of a master who tried out his servants for a month and then sent them away.^[11] Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger used it for “paltry” in 1618, and Fanfani recorded it for “miserly” in 1855, though Venetian peochioso already meant “miserly” in Boerio's dictionary of 1829.^[11] A Tuscan proverb ran Mercante litigioso, o fallito o pidocchioso (“a quarrelsome merchant is either bankrupt or a pauper”).^[12]

Modern Italian keeps the literal sense, the sense “wretchedly poor” and the sense “stingy”, the last two also as nouns.^[5][10][13]

Timeline

• 1348 – Senisio's Sicilian Declarus has the word.^[2]
• 1357 – A Lucca document uses it as an insult.^[11]
• 1534 – Aretino uses it for “stingy, sordid”.^[11]
• 1618 – Buonarroti the Younger uses it for “paltry”.^[11]
• 1829 – Venetian peochioso “miserly” is recorded by Boerio.^[11]
• 1855 – Fanfani's dictionary records the sense “miserly”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Infested with lice (pidocchi), of a person, the hair, clothes or a room; lousy: un vecchio cappotto pidocchioso.^{[5][6][9][7][1]}
2. (by extension, derogatory) Squalid, wretched, extremely poor.^[5][9][13]
3. (figurative) stingy, mean, petty: Non ha lasciato nemmeno la mancia, che tipo pidocchioso!^{[5][6][9][14]}

Noun

1. (derogatory) A ragged, poverty-stricken person, a pezzente.^[10][13]
2. (figurative) A miser, a petty, stingy person.^[5][10][14]

Word family

• pidocchiosamente

Related words

• pidocchio
• pidocchieria
• Latin peduculosus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 371
4. ^ a b c 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. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2906
9. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli