postierla

Forms

postierla f (plural postierle)^[1] Variants are posterla, pustierla and pusterla, the last much used in northern Italy.^[2][3][4] Sienese postiella is recorded in the 17th century.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin posterula (“back door”), a diminutive of postera, the feminine of posterus (“coming after, behind”), with porta (“gate”) understood.^[6][7][2][3] DEI starts from a form *postiérola.^[5] Wiktionary instead takes it from Old French posterle.^[1] The Latin word is used by Ammianus Marcellinus in the 4th century and at Rome in the 6th for a back way or a side gate of the city.^[5][6]

Nocentini notes that the usual explanation, that the vowel became ⟨iè⟩ after the unstressed ⟨u⟩ had dropped, puts the two changes in the wrong order; he sees rather a diphthong before ⟨r⟩ in a closed syllable, as in perla.^[7]

The same word is Old Occitan posterla, Lombard pusterla “side door beside the main gate”, Dalmatian posterula and Old French posterle, which became French poterne, whence Spanish poterna.^[8][9][5][7] The Old French form gave the English word postern.^[5]

Latin posterus is the old comparative of post (“behind, after”), from Proto-Indo-European *pos (“after”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form pusterla is recorded at Ravenna from 844 and at Parma in 1255.^[5] DELI's first Italian record of postierla is in Giovanni Villani's chronicle, before 1348, for a small gate in a tower, wall or castle that lets one person through at a time;^[6][5] DEI cites postierla already in Ricordano Malispini.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

In the old fortifications the postierla was a hidden gate far from the main gates, kept for emergencies, or a small door beside the main gate of a town or castle.^[11][3] Nievo uses the northern form pustierla of a castle's postern.^[3] By extension the word came to mean a secondary door of an ordinary building, and Bassani uses it so.^[11][3] In heraldry pusterla names the gates in the walls of a turreted crown.^[3]

Timeline

• 4th century – Ammianus Marcellinus uses Latin posterula.^[5]
• 844 – Pusterla is recorded at Ravenna.^[5]
• 1255 – Pusterla is recorded at Parma.^[5]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses postierla.^[6][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical, military) postern: a small gate in the walls of a town, fortress or castle, often hidden and away from the main gates, used as an emergency way in or out.^{[11][12][13][3][1]}
2. (by extension) A secondary door of a building, usually smaller than the main one.^[11][13][3]

Related words

• postero
• posterula
• French poterne
• Latin posterus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3158
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3037
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse