pittima

pittima¹ godwit

Forms

pittima f (plural pittime)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the godwit is from Italian pittima² (“poultice; tiresome person”) in the tentative view of DELI, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli.^[2][3][4] DELI, after Prati, compares pettegola “gossip”, which has also become the name of a related wading bird.^[2] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli explain it as a metaphor from the figurative sense “tiresome, plaintive person”, probably because of the bird's shrill, mournful call.^[3][4]

GRADIT, Sabatini–Coletti, Zingarelli and Treccani call the origin uncertain, and the GDLI suggests it may be imitative.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} Wiktionary too calls it uncertain, perhaps related to the medical word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in D'Alberti's dictionary of 1804, which glosses it with moschettone.^[2][10][9] DELI's definition is a bird with long legs and a long, thin straight beak with which it searches the mud for small animals.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the naturalist Savi described the pittima piccola and the pittima reale as species of Limosa.^[9] Today the word names the birds of the genus Limosa of the sandpiper family; two species pass through Italy on migration, the pittima reale (Limosa limosa) and the pittima minore (Limosa lapponica).^[8][4][5]

Timeline

• 1804 – D'Alberti records the bird name.^[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) A godwit, any bird of the genus Limosa, with long legs and a long, thin beak: pittima reale, the black-tailed godwit;^[5][4][8][1] pittima minore, the bar-tailed godwit.^[5][4][8][1]

pittima² poultice

Forms

pittima f (plural pittime)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the poultice is borrowed from Late Latin epithema (“poultice”), which is from Ancient Greek ἐπίθεμα (epíthema, “what is put on; poultice”), literally “something placed on top”.^[5][8][2][1] The Greek noun comes from ἐπιτίθημι (epitíthēmi, “to put on”), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”) with ἐπί (epí, “on”).^[3][2] Nocentini takes it directly from the Greek of Byzantium, as a late loan in which the neuter noun became feminine and the long ⟨ē⟩ was read as ⟨i⟩.^[3]

The form lost its first vowel and doubled the ⟨t⟩ after the stressed first syllable.^[11][3][5] The LEI separates these popular forms without ⟨e-⟩ from the learned and half-learned epitema and Old Italian epittima, which kept it.^[12][13] The Latin word also survives in Friulian pitime, and in Spain as Spanish bizma (Old Spanish bitma, about 1275) and Valencian pilma.^[12][14] The sense “tiresome person” follows the same path as cataplasma and impiastro.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Tommaso del Garbo, between 1340 and 1346, who advises putting pitime on the liver with endive water, rose water and vinegar in hot weather.^[2][12][9] The sense was a decoction of aromatic herbs in hot wine, applied outside the body, especially over the heart.^[15][5]

Semantic evolution

Physicians used the pittima cordiale, laid on the heart to revive the vital spirits: Saint Bernardino of Siena speaks of it in 1427, and the phrase is recorded until about 1718.^[12][9] The figurative sense “tiresome or importunate person or thing” is recorded before 1500 in Cornazano, and in the 16th century the word could also mean a miser.^[2][10]

In southern Italy pittima veneziana (1887) was a person who reminded a debtor of his debt.^[10] A popular story, printed in the Panzini dictionary from 1905, made it a legal institution of the Republic of Venice: a man sent by the court to follow the debtor everywhere and reproach him.^[2] Piero Calamandrei looked for any evidence of such an office and found none (1940), and DELI accepts Prati's view that the phrase referred to the fame of the poultice made in Venice.^[2] The medical sense is now obsolete, and the word lives on as a name for a tiresome, whining person.^[5][4][8]

Timeline

• 1340–1346 – Tommaso del Garbo uses pitime for poultices.^[12][2]
• c. 1361 – The learned epitima appears in a Tuscan text.^[13]
• 1427 – Saint Bernardino of Siena mentions pittime cordiali.^[12]
• Before 1449 – Burchiello uses pittima.^[5][12]
• Before 1500 – Cornazano uses the word for a tiresome person.^[2]
• 1887 – Pittima veneziana is recorded for a reminder of debts.^[10]
• 1940 – Piero Calamandrei finds no trace of a Venetian pittima institution.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete, medicine) A poultice: a decoction of aromatic herbs in hot wine, applied warm over the heart, liver or stomach.^[5][4][8][1]
2. (figurative) A tiresome, insistent or whining person, a nuisance: smettila di fare la pittima.^[5][4][6][1]
3. (figurative, uncommon) A miser.^[8][16]