pignone

pignone¹ embankment, spur dyke

Forms

pignone m (plural pignoni)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the spur of an embankment is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinniō, from Latin pinna (“battlement, blade; point”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Several dictionaries take pinna in the sense of pinnacolo (“pinnacle”).^[4][6][7][8] Nocentini calls it an augmentative.^[3] The same Vulgar Latin word gave French pignon (“gable”) and Old Occitan pinhó.^[3][9][10] The origin of pinna is uncertain.^[2]

Prati also considered a derivation from pigna, as Tommaseo did, who compared the pointed shape of a pine cone.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a 14th-century commentary on Dante's Commedia, dated 1343 by DELI with a question mark, where something found is placed on a pignone standing above the river bank.^[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

Tuscan writers on rivers used it for the pointed stone spurs built out from banks and bridge piers to turn the current: a letter in a collection of unpublished artists' letters mentions a pignon to turn the Arno, and Viviani proposed pignoni in the form of strong embankments.^[12][8] Parini pictures early men armed with pignone audace against the flood.^[8] In architecture the word also names the triangular top of a façade that carries the slopes of the roof, especially in Romanesque and Gothic buildings.^[4][6][13]

Timeline

• 1343 – The first record, in a commentary on Dante.^[2][3][4]
• 17th century – Viviani writes about pignoni on the Arno.^[14][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (hydraulics) The pointed head of a groyne or spur dyke, often a truncated cone of masonry that protects bridge piers and river banks from the current.^{[4][6][13][1]}
2. (architecture) A gable, the triangular top of a façade.^{[4][6][13][1]}

pignone² pinion

Forms

pignone m (plural pignoni)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the gear wheel is borrowed from French pignon, recorded in French in 1560.^[2][3][4][6] The French word is explained in more than one way: DELI, Nocentini, GRADIT and Treccani derive it from peigne (“comb”) (older Old French pigne), from the teeth, a metaphor like that of camma.^[2][3][4][7] Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI take pigne in the sense “pine cone”.^[15][8] DEI and Zingarelli see the same word as pignon (“gable”), the source of the first homograph.^[14][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Chambers, 1749, for the smaller wheel of a pair of gears.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

It became the ordinary term of mechanics for the toothed wheel with fewer teeth that meshes with a larger one: the pignone del differenziale in a car.^[6][15][8] On a bicycle it is the small sprocket on the hub of the rear wheel.^[16] Genoese pignon is recorded in 1851.^[14]

Timeline

• 1560 – French pignon “pinion” is recorded.^[2]
• 1749 – Italian pignone appears in Chambers.^[2][4]
• 1851 – Genoese pignon is recorded.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mechanics) A pinion, the smaller of two meshing gears; on a bicycle, a rear sprocket: Ho cambiato il pignone della bici.^{[4][6][15][16][1]}