porcino

Forms

porcino (feminine porcina, masculine plural porcini, feminine plural porcine)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian porchino, Old Italian porcinu, Old Italian purcinu, Old Italian purchinu and Old Italian purkino.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin porcīnus (“of a pig”), formed from porcus (“pig”) with the suffix -īnus.^{[3][4][1][5][6]} By surface analysis it is also porco with the suffix -ino.^[1]

The noun for the mushroom is the adjective used alone.^[3][7] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli explain it as an ellipsis of fungo porcino, “the mushroom that pigs eat”.^[3][7] The DEI, the GDLI and Sabatini–Coletti see a calque of Latin suillus (“of swine”), used of a kind of mushroom, which the DEI says survives with this sense in southern Italy, as Sicilian siddu.^[8][9][10] Treccani calls the reason for the extension unknown.^[11]

Di Virgilio objected that a name from the pig does not suit so prized a mushroom, and proposed porca “clod of earth”, for a mushroom growing on the ground rather than on trees.^[3] Nocentini rejects this: the Italian adjective can only mean “of the pig”, the same idea lies behind the Latin adjective beside sūs (“pig”) and Polish świniak beside świnia (“pig”), the taste for mushrooms is recent, and swineherds could watch pigs eat every kind of mushroom, even poisonous ones.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis of the 13th century, with the sense “of the pig, belonging to the pig”.^[2][3] DELI's first date is about 1350, in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective was used of meat and dung, in similes for lust, and in plant names: pane porcino, the cyclamen;^[2][9] finocchio porcino, the hog's fennel; and erba porcina.^[2][9] Later dictionaries record a kind of plum (susine porcine, named by Micheli in 1729), a kind of pear named by Mattioli in 1544, and occhio porcino, a small eye like a pig's (Garzoni, 1585).^[8]

The mushroom sense is dated 1476, in Cristoforo Landino.^[12] Mattioli writes that Tuscany is richer in mushrooms than the rest of Italy and that, besides the prignoli, people value those called porcini.^[13] The figurative use for vulgar or depraved behaviour goes back to Old Italian lussuria porcina “swinish lust” and is still found in Carducci.^[13][14]

English borrowed the plural as porcini.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis has the adjective.^[2]
• About 1350 – the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi uses porcino “of the pig”.^[12]
• 1476 – Cristoforo Landino uses porcino for the mushroom.^[12]
• 1544 – Mattioli names a variety of pear and the mushroom with the adjective.^[8]
• 1585 – Garzoni calls small eyes occhi porcini.^[8][13]
• 1729 – Micheli names the plum susina porcina.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the pig, relating to pigs; swine: grasso porcino.^{[4][7][10][15]}
2. (figurative) Like a pig's in appearance;^{[4][7][16][14]} occhi porcini are small, round eyes in a fat face.^{[4][7][16][14]}
3. (figurative) Of conduct, swinish, depraved or vulgar.^[4][14][15]

Noun

1. (mycology) The cep or penny bun (Boletus edulis), a highly prized edible mushroom with a thick stem, a brown spongy cap and firm white flesh; also as an adjective, fungo porcino.^{[4][7][10][11][1]}
2. (mycology) Any of several species of Boletus: porcino nero (Boletus aereus), with a dark cap;^[4][14][16] porcino malefico (Boletus satanas), a poisonous species.^[4][14][16]

Word family

• porcina
• porcinello
• porcinaglia
• porcinoso

Related words

• porco
• suino
• Latin porcus
• porcini

Usage notes

Pan porcino is a name of the cyclamen, and pietra porcina a sandy limestone quarried in the Marche.^[10][14] Nocentini and the DEI number the adjective and the mushroom name as two headwords;^[3][8][12] DELI treats them in one article.^[3][8][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
7. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3022
9. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana