porcile

Forms

porcile m (plural porcili)^[1] Old forms include porcil and purcile.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *porcīle (“pigsty”), made from porcus (“pig”) with the place suffix -īle.^{[3][4][1][2][5]} Devoto–Oli, Zingarelli, Treccani and Devoto instead take it as an Italian formation: it is from Italian porco, on the model of ovile and canile.^[6][7][8][9] The Latin word for a pigsty had been Latin suīle, from sūs (“pig”), used by Columella and kept only in Logudorese suile.^[5][8]

The same word is Logudorese porkile and Old French porcil;^[4][5] Old Spanish had a derivative porcilga, now Spanish pocilga.^[4][5] Medieval Latin porcīle surfaces only in the 13th century, by then taken from the Romance languages.^[1]

Latin porcus is Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos (“digger, pig”), from a root meaning “to dig up, cut”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1274–1284, for a farm building where pigs are kept;^[2][11] DELI's is Guittone, before 1294.^[2][11] GRADIT, Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and Zingarelli date the word to the 12th century.^{[3][12][6][7]}

Semantic evolution

Dante compares the sinners of the Inferno to a pig breaking out of its sty (Che 'l porco quando dal porcil si schiude).^[13] The figurative sense of a filthy place is in Boccaccio, before 1375, and Old Italian also used the word for a thing of little worth.^[11][2]

The modern word names a low farm building divided into pens, and colloquially any dirty, untidy room or house.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 12th century – GRADIT, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the first record to this century.^[3][12][6]
• 1274–1284 – A Florentine document has porcile.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone uses the word.^[11]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses it for a filthy place.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pigsty: a farm building or pen where pigs are kept and reared.^[3][6][8]
2. (figurative, colloquial) A very dirty, untidy place: questa cucina è un porcile.^[3][6][14]

Word family

• porcilaia

Related words

• porco
• ovile
• Latin porcus

Usage notes

Old Italian also had an adjective porcile, “of a pig”, from porco, first recorded in 1342.^[2][5][13] Synonyms of the noun are porcilaia and porcareccia.^[1][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3021
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 338
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse