pistore

Forms

pistore m (plural pistori)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pistor (“pounder; miller; baker”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is formed pīnsō (“to pound”) with the agent suffix -tor: it first meant one who pounded spelt in a mortar, then a miller and baker.^[5][3][6][1]

The word survives in the north-east, as Venetian pistor in Venice, Padua and Trentino, while southern dialects use descendants of Latin furnarius.^[7][8][9] It is also Old Occitan pestor and Old French pestour;^[9][7] Meyer-Lübke thinks the French word gave way to Old French boulanger because it clashed with the word for one who breaks wind.^[9][7] The Latin word was also borrowed as German Pfister.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a document from Prato after 1247, where the word names one who makes bread, also as a title.^[2] GRADIT dates it to the first half of the 13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian texts set it beside other trades: Ugieri Apugliese boasts so’ pistore e so’ fornaio, and in the Novellino a Greek tells a king voi foste figliuolo d’uno pistore (“you were a baker's son”).^[7][6] It could also mean a seller of bread.^[3][7]

By the 19th century it was out of use in Tuscan Italian, though Tommaseo noted that it lived on in the Veneto.^[10] Today the dictionaries mark it as obsolete or dialectal.^[3][11][12] It also survives as the surname Pistore.^[1]

Timeline

• After 1247 – A Prato document has pistore.^[2]
• 1800s – Tommaseo marks the word as obsolete in Tuscan but alive in the Veneto.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete or dialectal) A baker, one who kneads and bakes bread.^{[3][11][4][6][1]}
2. (obsolete) A seller of bread.^[3]

Related words

• pestare
• fornaio
• Latin pistor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ 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, p. 13, 577
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 784
9. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli