pollino

Forms

pollino (feminine pollina, masculine plural pollini, feminine plural polline)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pullīnus (“of young animals”), which in Italian came to mean “of chickens”.^[2][3][4][1] That adjective is formed from Latin pullus + -īnus, from pullus (“young animal; chick”).^[1][5] In Italian it goes with pollo, from the same Latin noun.^[2][6]

The same word is Friulian pulin “chicken louse”, and its feminine gave pollina and Friulian puline “chicken droppings”; in Sardinian, Sardinian puddina names the pimpernel.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a 14th-century treatise on the diseases of falcons, a Tuscan text with Lombard features, where the adjective means “belonging to a chicken”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Since the 15th century the word has lived mostly in a few fixed phrases.^[10] Pidocchio pollino is the louse of poultry, and Tommaseo cites lines of Lorenzo de' Medici where pollini alone means these lice;^[11][12] Redi wrote in the 17th century that all birds carry pollini in their feathers.^[11][12] Sterco pollino, chicken droppings, is also called pollina.^[10][3] Occhio pollino is a popular name for a corn between the toes.^[10][13]

As a noun, pollino also meant a small chicken;^[11] Chiabrera mentions a pollino d'India.^[11] In the north it is a regional word for the turkey, recorded before 1638 and formed from pollo with the suffix -ino (compare Milanese polìn).^[6][13]

Timeline

• 14th century – The TLIO's first record, in a treatise on falcons.^[8][9]
• 15th century – Lorenzo de' Medici uses pollini for bird lice.^[12][11]
• Before 1638 – Pollino “turkey” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of chickens or poultry: sterco pollino (chicken droppings).^[6][3][4][1]
2. Pidocchio pollino: a parasitic louse or mite of poultry.^[14][10]
3. Occhio pollino (popular): a corn that forms between two toes.^[10][13][14]

Noun

1. (regional, northern) turkey.^[6][13][14]

Word family

• pollina
• spollinarsi

Related words

• pollo
• Latin pullus

Usage notes

A separate pollino (recorded in 1761) is a Tuscan word for the floating mats of vegetation in the marshes of Bientina, and for boggy ground.^[6][11][15] Its origin is unclear: GRADIT and Zingarelli derive it from Latin pullus “dark”, Treccani and Gabrielli from pullus “soft” (of soil), as Meyer-Lübke and DEI do, comparing Calabrian puddu “soft”, while Cortelazzo and Marcato prefer pollare “to well up”.^{[6][13][10][14][7][12][16]} GRADIT also records pollino as the name of a red wine of Calabria.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c d e f Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3004
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 784
16. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET