pollare

Forms

pollare (first-person singular present póllo, first-person singular past historic pollài, past participle pollàto, auxiliary èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pullāre (“to sprout”), a verb formed from pullus (“young of an animal; shoot”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} DEI and Tommaseo find the Latin verb in Calpurnius.^[7][8] It is the same word as Portuguese pular (“to leap, jump”).^[9][7]

Italian polla, a spring of water, is a back-formation from the verb.^[2] Meyer-Lübke lists pollone and rampollare among its relatives.^[9] The noun pollo continues the same Latin noun.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Italian translation of Palladius, about 1340, with the sense “to well up”.^[2] Tommaseo quotes that text for the sprouting of the olive tree: Non si danneggia l’ulivo in quello luogo, ove de’ pollare, “the olive is not harmed in the place where it is to sprout”.^[8] The TLIO's first example is in Fazio degli Uberti's Dittamondo (c. 1345–1367), where a spring “rises and wells up”, surge, e polla.^[11][8]

Semantic evolution

The TLIO has both senses in Old Italian: a plant putting out shoots from the root or the stem, and a vein of water breaking out at the surface, used figuratively.^[11] Buti used both: grass “sprouts on the root of another”, and water “boils when it wells up”.^[8] DEI treats the two senses as two entries, the second derived from the first.^[7]

In modern Italian the verb is rare or literary.^[4][5][12] Pirandello wrote of someone staring at a flame while large tears welled up from his eyelids, grosse lagrime gli pollavano dalle palpebre.^[5][13] The noun polla is first recorded in Landino in 1481.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1340 – The Italian translation of Palladius uses pollare.^[2][4]
• c. 1345–1367 – Fazio degli Uberti uses it of a spring in the Dittamondo.^[11]
• 1481 – The noun polla appears in Landino.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) Of water or another liquid, to gush, to well up, to spring out: Dalla roccia pollava un filo d’acqua gelida.^{[4][5][12][13][1]}
2. (uncommon) Of plants, to sprout.^{[4][5][12][1]}

Word family

• polla
• ripollare

Related words

• pollone
• rampollare
• pollo
• Latin pullus

Usage notes

The auxiliary is essere, and the compound tenses are not used.^[13][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
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 d e 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3003
8. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)