posticcio

Forms

posticcio (feminine posticcia, masculine plural posticci, feminine plural posticce)^[1] Old Italian also has the full form Old Italian apposticcio, with Old Italian aposticcio.^[2][3] Northern dialects have forms such as Venetian postizzo and Ligurian postisso.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin appositīcius (“added”), which Nocentini sets up as a Vulgar Latin form *appositīcius, with the loss of the first syllable;^{[5][6][3][7][1]} Old Italian also kept the full apposticcio.^{[5][6][3][7][1]} The Latin word was a legal term.^[4] It is formed from appositus, the past participle of appōnō (“to put beside”).^[5][6][8] The LEI suggests that the short forms may owe something to posto.^[4]

DEI derives the word instead from Late Latin postīcius (“coming after”), recorded in Venantius Fortunatus, from postīcus.^[9] Meyer-Lübke lists both etyma.^[10]

The same word is Old Occitan apostitz (“false”), Spanish postizo and Portuguese postiço.^[6][10][4] The Late Latin adjective is also continued in Judaeo-French apostiz, before 1105 in Rashi, and in Spanish apostizo of about 1343.^[4] French postiche comes from the Italian word.^[6][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Devoto–Oli date the word before 1320.^[12][13] DELI's first records are in the translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi's treatise on agriculture, about 1350, both for the adjective “artificial, put in place of something natural” and for the noun, a plot where young plants are set before transplanting.^[5] The noun had already appeared as Medieval Latin posticium at Bologna in 982.^[5] The full form apposticcio is recorded in a Pisan statute of 1327, meaning “put in place for a time”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept its sense of something added to take the place of what is missing: capelli posticci “false hair” appears in a 14th-century translation of the Gospels, and Bembo, before 1547, writes zazzera posticcia “false mop of hair”.^[4][5] From this come the senses “temporary” and “artificial, false”.^[12][3]

In agriculture terra posticcia was soil brought in from elsewhere, and the noun named a nursery bed;^[3][14] Crescenzi and Sacchetti use it.^[3][14] A sense “support” in Medieval Latin apposticium (Genoa, 1248) spread through shipbuilding: in the galleys the posticcio was the frame above the hull on which the oars rested, and the remo posticcio an extra oar on a bench.^[4][3] In 1614 Pantera uses the word for the second rower at an oar.^[9]

French borrowed the word as postiche, an adjective from 1606 and a noun for false curls from 1585.^[11] The French noun came back to Italian as a fashion word, and Panzini noted in 1918 that women said postiches;^[5][4] posticcio itself is recorded as a noun for a hairpiece in 1958.^[5][4] English has postiche from French.^[11][1]

Timeline

• 982 – Medieval Latin posticium is recorded at Bologna.^[5]
• Before 1320 – GRADIT's first date for the Italian word.^[12]
• 1327 – Apposticcio is recorded in a Pisan statute.^[2]
• c. 1350 – The Crescenzi translation uses the adjective and the noun.^[5]
• Before 1547 – Bembo writes of a zazzera posticcia.^[5]
• 1585 – French postiches “false curls” is recorded.^[11]
• 1614 – Pantera uses posticcio for a rower in the galleys.^[9]
• 1958 – Posticcio is recorded as a noun for a hairpiece.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Artificial, false: added to replace something natural that is missing: denti posticci (false teeth).^{[12][13][15][1]}
2. (by extension) Temporary, easy to remove: un tramezzo posticcio (a temporary partition).^{[12][13][15][1]}
3. (figurative) contrived, insincere: sorrisi posticci (forced smiles).^[12][13][3]
4. Of a name: invented.^[13][3][1]
5. (nautical, historical) Additional: remo posticcio (an extra oar).^[12][3]

Noun

1. A hairpiece: a tuft of real or false hair added to a hairstyle; a toupet.^{[12][15][3][1]}
2. (agriculture) A nursery bed: soil where young plants are grown before transplanting.^{[12][15][3][1]}
3. (historical, nautical) In a galley, the wooden frame projecting from the hull from stern to bow, on which the oars rested.^[15][3][1]

Word family

• posticcia
• posticciamente
• posticciare

Related words

• apporre
• posto
• French postiche
• Latin appositicius

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 i j k l m Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 308
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3038
10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse