pietica

Forms

pietica f (plural pietiche)^[1] Older forms are pedica and piedica.^[2][1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pedica (“fetter; snare”), with the present form probably influenced by pertica (“pole”).^{[4][5][1][6][7]}

The Latin noun is the substantivised feminine of an adjective formed on pēs (“foot”), and first meant a fetter for the feet, then a trap.^[1][3][2] The same word gave Romanian piedică, French piège and Portuguese pega.^[8]

Prati traced the carpenter's term instead to a popular adjective *pedicus (“of the foot”), in a phrase with trabs (“beam”), because the trestle stands on legs; he explained the /t/ of the present form as an assimilation of /d/ to the following consonant.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The trestle is first recorded under the form pedica, in a Florentine document of 1288, as the stand on which sawyers place the timber they cut.^[10] The form pietica first appears in Baldinucci's dictionary of the arts of design in 1681.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

Baldinucci describes it as two beams joined at one end like the arms of a pair of compasses, with holes for adjusting the opening.^[7] It was used to hold a trunk slanting while two men sawed it lengthwise into planks.^[2] The tool has gone out of use, and the word with it.^[5][4]

Timeline

• 1288 – Pedica “sawyer's trestle” appears in a Florentine document.^[10]
• 1681 – Baldinucci records pietica and pietiche.^[4][11]
• 1804 – D'Alberti records the form piedica.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (carpentry, obsolete) A trestle with a crossbar of adjustable height, on which tree trunks were set to be sawn into planks.^[4][5][2]

Related words

• piede
• Latin pedica

Usage notes

The word is often used in the plural, pietiche, for the one tool.^[7][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
3. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2907
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 775
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2911