pulce

Forms

pulce f (plural pulci)^[1] Old Italian forms include pulice, pulci, polci and the northern pules, pulese and pulego.^[2] Pulice was still written by Cavalca and by Annibal Caro.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pūlex (“flea”), from the accusative pūlicem, with the loss of the short vowel after the stressed syllable.^[4][5][6][1] Nocentini also sets up Vulgar Latin *pūlica that moved the word into the feminine declension.^[5] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance masculine */ˈpulik-e/, continued in Sardinian and Romanian, beside an innovated feminine */ˈpulk-e/ with the syncope, to which Italian belongs, and a remodelled feminine */ˈpulk-a/.^[7] DEI notes that the masculine survives in southern Italy and in Sardinian.^[8]

The word is found in every Romance language: French puce, Occitan piuze, Catalan pussa, Spanish pulga, Portuguese pulga, Sardinian pùlighe, Romanian purice and Vegliote pulko.^[5][9][10] In Parma, Piacenza and Pavia it has the feminine form of Spanish, Emilian pluga and Lombard pülga.^[9]

Latin pūlex continues the Indo-European name of the flea, but the name was passed on in such a disturbed form that the words of the other languages do not allow a common form to be reconstructed.^[5][11] De Vaan tentatively sets up Proto-Indo-European *plus- (“flea”) and compares Ancient Greek ψύλλα (psúlla), a Sanskrit word, Albanian plesht, Lithuanian blusà and Old High German flōh.^[12][1] The English cognate is Old English flēah, now flea.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Milanese poems of Bonvesin de la Riva, late in the 13th century, where the word names the small troublesome insect that lives on people and animals.^[2] DELI dates the word to before 1306, in Jacopone da Todi, with the same sense.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian texts already use the flea as a picture of smallness and weakness, comparing a weak man to a strong one, and as a metaphor for the itch of the flesh in a sexual sense.^[2] Dante's Inferno has dogs in summer bitten by fleas, flies or gadflies (o da pulci, o da mosche, o da tafani).^[13]

The figure mettere una pulce nell'orecchio, to plant a doubt or suspicion in someone's mind, copies French mettre la puce à l'oreille, recorded from the end of the 13th century;^[4] DEI finds it in Italian in the 15th century, in the Pataffio.^[8] Naturalists then gave the name to other small jumping animals: pulce d'acqua and pulce di neve are recorded about 1750, and pulce dei ghiacciai in the 20th century.^[8]

As an invariable adjective for a reddish-brown colour, color pulce is a Gallicism, after French puce.^[8] Later the word also named a table game played with counters, recorded in 1958, and, in journalists' language, a hidden miniature microphone.^[4][14][15]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – Bonvesin de la Riva uses the word in his Milanese poems.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses pulce.^[4][5]
• 15th century – Pulce nell'orecchio “a nagging suspicion” appears in the Pataffio.^[8]
• 16th century – Spulciare “to rid of fleas” and pulcesecca are recorded.^[5]
• Before 1745 – Pulcioso “full of fleas” is first recorded, in Tommaso Crudeli.^[4]
• 1749 – Pulce di neve appears as a name for a small jumping insect.^[8]
• 1841 – Pulciaio “a place full of fleas” is recorded.^[4]
• 1958 – The name of the game of pulci is first recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. flea: a small wingless insect with strong hind legs for jumping that lives on people and animals and sucks their blood, especially the human flea, Pulex irritans.^[14][16][17]
2. (zoology) Common name of various small jumping insects and crustaceans: pulce d'acqua (a water flea, Daphnia), pulce di mare (a sand hopper).^[17][15]
3. (figurative) A very small animal or person; also an affectionate name for a child: Vieni qui, pulce!^[16][6]
4. (figurative) An insignificant person.^[14][16]
5. (slang) A miniature hidden microphone, a bug.^[14][6][15]
6. A game in which players make small counters jump by pressing their edge with a larger counter.^[4][15]

Adjective

1. Of a reddish-brown colour, color pulce.^[14][6][15]

Word family

• pulciaio
• pulcioso
• pulcesecca
• spulciare
• spulciatura
• antipulci

Related words

• Latin pulex
• French puce
• Spanish pulga

Usage notes

Common figurative phrases are mettere una pulce nell'orecchio (to make someone suspicious), fare le pulci a qualcuno (to examine someone's work or accounts with petty thoroughness), noioso come una pulce (very tiresome) and mercato delle pulci (a flea market).^[16][15][17] The proverb anche le pulci hanno la tosse (“even fleas have a cough”) is said of people who claim more than they are worth.^[17][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 810
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3142
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana