piega

Forms

piega f (plural pieghe)^[1] Old Italian forms include piegha and the northern plega.^[2]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Italian piegare (“to fold, bend”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} DELI treats it under the verb.^[7] Nocentini and DEI instead derive it from Latin plica (“fold”), itself formed from plicō (“to fold”);^[8][9] DEI cites the Latin noun from Cato and Nocentini as a Medieval Latin word.^[8][9] GRADIT gives the Latin noun and refers to the verb as well.^[10]

The same Latin noun has Sardinian piga, Friulian pleye, Occitan plega (“band, hoop”), Catalan plega (“end”) and Portuguese prega (“fold”).^[11][8] DEI records Old Italian pleca at Avezzano in the 14th century for a flock of more than twelve animals.^[9] The phrase messa in piega, a hair set, is a calque of French mise en pli.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to about 1225 and Nocentini to the early 13th century.^[10][8] The first text the TLIO quotes is the Proverbi of the Florentine Garzo, of the second half of the 13th century: Arco per piega / gran colpo allega (“a bow by bending deals a great blow”).^[2] There it means the act of bending something straight into a curve.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word moved from the act of bending to its result: the point where something is bent, a fold or pleat in cloth, a wave in the hair, a wrinkle in the skin, a folded letter, and figuratively a bent of character.^[2] Dante, before 1321, used it for a winding, Cavalca, before 1342, for a tendency, and Boccaccio in 1341–1342 for the point where something bends.^[7] By 1552 Anton Francesco Doni could say of a grown man that he “has taken the fold” (egli ha fatto la piega): his habits are fixed.^[7] The crease that remains after folding is recorded in Vasari in 1550.^[7]

The geological fold of rock strata is recorded in 1931.^[7] The modern figurative uses are the course of events (prendere una brutta piega, to take a turn for the worse) and the hidden parts of something (le pieghe dell'anima).^[10][12][4] A recent slang use is the steep lean of a motorcycle in a bend.^[13][5]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – GRADIT dates the first record.^[10]
• Second half of the 13th century – Garzo's Proverbi use piega for bending.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for a winding.^[7]
• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio uses it for the point where something bends.^[7]
• 1550 – Vasari uses it for a crease.^[7]
• 1552 – Anton Francesco Doni writes egli ha fatto la piega of a man set in his ways.^[7]
• 1931 – The word is recorded for a fold in rock strata.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The point where something is bent; a bend, curve: la piega del polso;^[10][3][4] la piega del fiume.^[10][3][4]
2. A fold or pleat in cloth, pressed or sewn as an ornament: una gonna a pieghe.^[10][3][4]
3. A crease left by folding or crumpling: Questa camicia è tutta pieghe.^[10][3][5]
4. The set or wave of the hair;^[10][3][5] messa in piega, a hair set.^[10][3][5]
5. A wrinkle or line in the skin.^[10][3][5]
6. (figurative) The course or turn of events: prendere una brutta piega.^[10][4][12]
7. (figurative, usually plural) The hidden, innermost part: le pieghe della memoria.^[10][4][12]
8. (geology) A fold in layers of rock.^[10][4][12]
9. (anatomy) A plica.^[10][12]

Word family

• piegone
• pieghina
• piegolina
• piegoso
• antipiega

Related words

• piegare
• plica
• piego

Usage notes

Non fare una piega is said of a garment that sits perfectly, of an argument that is flawless, and of a person who shows no reaction.^[3][5][14] Piega is also the third person singular present of piegare.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2908
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli