pietanza

Forms

pietanza f (plural pietanze)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian pietansa and pitanza, and popular Tuscan had piattanza.^[2][3] DEI records pitància at Montecatini in the 15th century.^[4]

Etymology

In DELI's account the word is inherited from Old Italian pietanza (“pity”), borrowed from Old Occitan pietansa (“pity”), which in the 12th and 13th centuries also meant “alms” and then a portion of bread, wine or meat given daily or at each meal.^[5][6] The food was first what was given out of pity to the poor.^[5][7] GDLI also names Old French pitance, recorded in 1120.^[2] GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Treccani instead take it as an Italian formation, from Italian pietà + -anza, on the model of words such as speranza.^[8][9][10] Nocentini starts from a Vulgar Latin *pietantia, from Latin pietās (“piety; alms”), derived from the adjective for “pious”.^[11]

The sources also disagree on the direction of borrowing.^[12][4] REW lists French pitance, Catalan pitansa, Spanish pitanza and Portuguese pitança as loans from the Italian word.^[12] DEI takes Medieval Latin pitantia (1268) and pictancia (1299) from the French word, derived from pitié (“pity”).^[4] Prati doubted a derivation from the word for “pity” because of the Medieval Latin spellings.^[3]

De Vaan traces the Latin adjective pius (“dutiful”) to Proto-Indo-European *puH-io- (“purifying”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the word to before 1250.^[14] In early poetry it meant “pity, compassion”: Guinizelli writes eo pietanza chero (I ask for pity).^[6][2] DELI's first record of the food sense is a Florentine text of 1280, for the extra food given to monks besides bread.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In monasteries pietanza was the extra dish given to the monks on certain days, and fare la pietanza meant giving such a meal; the Florentine friars asked for certa pietanza for a provincial chapter.^[2] The Novellino uses it for a public feast proclaimed by Ezzelino, and Boccaccio's Gianni Lotteringhi gave di buone pietanze a' frati.^[2][15] Boccaccio in 1353 and Sacchetti use it for food given as alms.^[5][4]

Nocentini explains the modern sense from the charitable distributions, which did not include bread: the pietanza was what was eaten with the bread.^[11] Ariosto uses the word in 1516 for any dish, and today it is a dish served at table, especially the main course after the first course or soup.^[5][8][9] The sense “pity” has become archaic.^[14][6]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Pietanza is recorded.^[14]
• 1268 – Medieval Latin pitantia is recorded.^[4]
• 1280 – A Florentine text uses pietanza for the food given to monks.^[5]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for food given as alms.^[5]
• 1516 – Ariosto uses pietanza for a dish.^[5]
• 1958 – Pietanziera, a sealed food container, appears in Calvino.^[5][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dish served at a meal, especially the main course after the first course: Come pietanza ho ordinato il pollo arrosto.^[8][9][14]
2. (archaic) Pity, compassion.^[8][14][6]
3. (historical) Extra food given to monks on certain occasions; food given as alms: fare pietanza, to give a meal.^[8][14][6]
4. Feed for stabled animals, chiefly bran and oilcake.^[8]

Word family

• pietanziera

Related words

• pietà
• pio
• French pitance
• Latin pietas

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 775
4. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2911
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
8. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET