pisello

Forms

pisello m (plural piselli)^[1] Old forms are Old Italian pesello, plural peselli or peseli.^[2] The GDLI also lists pessello and old plurals in -gli and -ci.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pisĕllum, a diminutive of Latin pĭsum (“pea”).^[4][5][6][1] From pĭsum the expected Italian outcome is Old Italian pesello, which is indeed widely recorded in old and modern Tuscan;^[4] the simple word survived in Tuscany as Old Italian peso.^[7][8]

The diminutive belongs to Italy and to French dialects.^[9][8] Elsewhere the simple word lives on: French pois, Old Occitan pes and the derivative Catalan pèsol.^[8][5] pisum was also borrowed into Old English pisu, the ancestor of English pea.^[9][8]

pisum is from Ancient Greek πίσον (píson) according to the OLD, Wiktionary and DELI, which calls the Greek word itself of foreign origin.^[10][1][4] Nocentini compares Ancient Greek πίσος (písos) and sees the Latin and Greek words as parallel borrowings from an unknown source, as often with plant names;^[5] Battisti and Alessio call both relics of a substrate.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Sienese statute of about 1303, for the edible seed of the plant.^[2] Medieval Latin pisellus is recorded at Castelfiorentino in 1305, and the Italian pisello in the translation of Crescenzi, about 1350: siccome il pisello e gli altri legumi tutti (“like the pea and all the other legumes”).^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Tuscan cookery already boiled peselli with pork.^[3] Tommaseo–Bellini lists the kinds sold in 19th-century Florence, such as piselli fini and piselli baccelloni, and dishes such as riso co' piselli.^[11]

From the 16th and 17th centuries pisellone and pisello were said of a simpleton;^[9][7] DEI thinks this sense came through a slang use of the word for the penis.^[9][7] The sense “penis”, mostly a child's, is recorded from 1954.^[4] The colour verde pisello appears in Fanfani in the 19th century.^[9]

Italian passed the word on: southern Italian gave the forms of the Greek dialects of Bova and Otranto, and northern Italian gave μπιζέλι (bizéli).^[9][1] Wiktionary also traces bezelye to Italian.^[1]

Timeline

• About 1303 – first record, in a Sienese statute.^[2]
• 1305 – Medieval Latin pisellus at Castelfiorentino.^[4][9]
• About 1350 – the Italian Crescenzi uses pisello.^[4]
• 16th century – pisellaia (Varchi) and pisellone “simpleton” (Baldovini).^[9]
• 1612 – pisellaio “pea field” in Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.^[9]
• 17th century – Magalotti uses pisello for a simpleton.^[9]
• 19th century – verde pisello is recorded by Fanfani.^[9]
• 1954 – DEI records the sense “penis”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. pea: the small round light-green edible seed: pasta con piselli e pancetta.^[6][12]
2. The pea plant, Pisum sativum and related species, grown in many garden and fodder varieties.^[6][12][13]
3. A light green like that of peas; as an invariable adjective, of that colour: una giacca verde pisello.^[6][12]
4. (colloquial) penis, especially a child's.^[6][13][14]
5. (figurative, dated) A simpleton.^[15][16]
6. (technical) A size grade of fuel or building aggregate with pieces about as big as peas.^[6]

Word family

• pisellino
• pisellone
• pisellaia
• pisellaio
• pisello odoroso

Related words

• Latin pisum
• French pois
• English pea

Usage notes

Pisello odoroso is the sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus.^[12][1] La principessa sul pisello, after Andersen's tale, is said of a fussy person.^[15] A jocular political pisello, now dated, was a member or supporter of the Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani, founded in 1947, from its initials PSLI read with the vegetable in mind;^[17] Pavese uses it.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 564
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 783
8. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2950
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 565