quaglia

Forms

quaglia f (plural quaglie)^[1] Old Italian forms include quailie, qualia, quallia and quagla.^[2] Northern Italy had Old Italian quaia and Old Italian quaya, and Reggio Calabria has quàcchia.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *coācula, a word imitating the bird's call.^[5][6][7][8] The Latin word is known only from glosses: the Reichenau Glossary of the 8th century gives Late Latin quaccola as the everyday word for coturnix (“quail”).^[9][3][1]

The Italian form is not the expected Tuscan outcome.^[10][3] Devoto explains the ⟨gli⟩ as northern Italian softening of the group -cl-, where Tuscan would have -cchia.^[10] GRADIT and Treccani see the influence of Old Occitan calha, and the GDLI brings it through Old Provençal and French.^[6][11][12] Meyer-Lübke took the Italian word as a loan from Occitan, and Prati suggests it came from France as a hunting term.^[13][4] The LEI objects that a loan from calha would have given ⟨caglia⟩, not ⟨quaglia⟩.^[3]

The same word is French caille, with Old French quaille in Anglo-Norman about 1120, and Catalan guatlla and Spanish coalla, the latter recorded in 1644.^[9][3][13] Old High German quahtala, modern German Wachtel, and Dutch kwakkel are similar.^[9][13] Nocentini takes the late record of the Latin form as a sign of an early Germanic loan into Gallo-Romance, but allows that the Romance and Germanic names may have converged on the same imitation of the call.^[9] Meyer-Lübke thought a link with the Germanic words possible but direct descent unlikely, and the LEI drops the Germanic theory.^[13][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin documents give quaila at Bologna in 1250, coalia at Parma in 1255 and quaia at Vicenza in 1264.^[5] GRADIT dates the Italian word to about 1225.^[6][5][2] DELI's first Italian record is in the sonnets of Folgore da San Gimignano, in the second half of the 13th century, and the TLIO's is Restoro d'Arezzo in 1282, with the plural quailie.^[6][5][2] The sense is the small migratory game bird.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Folgore wishes his noble company “quails caught on the wing” (quaglie a volo prese), and Boccaccio names the flight of a quail among things only a coward fears.^[12] In Old Italian the bird was hunted with nets and prized as food.^[14][2]

In modern zoology the name extends to other birds: the quaglia tridattila (Turnix sylvatica), the quaglia della Virginia and others.^[15][8] Re di quaglie is the corncrake.^[15][8] Figurative uses are colloquial or slang: an attractive girl, a prostitute, a gullible person, and in slang a wallet.^[6]

Salto della quaglia “the quail's jump”, from the name of a children's game in Rome, is used in politics for an abrupt change of alliance to a distant or opposed party.^[15][7] Quaglia is also a surname, from the nickname.^[1]

Timeline

• 8th century – The Reichenau Glossary gives quaccola for Latin coturnix.^[9][3]
• c. 1225 – GRADIT's date for the Italian word.^[6]
• 1250 – Medieval Latin quaila is recorded at Bologna.^[5]
• 1255 – Coalia is recorded at Parma.^[5]
• 1264 – Quaia is recorded at Vicenza.^[5]
• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo writes the plural quailie.^[2]
• Second half of the 13th century – Folgore da San Gimignano uses quaglia.^[5]
• 1965 – Quagliodromo, formed on the model of ippodromo, is first recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. quail, a small migratory game bird (Coturnix coturnix) with brown, streaked plumage, which nests on the ground and is prized for its meat: uova di quaglia.^[6][8][11]
2. The name of various other small birds of the pheasant family and of related families, such as the quaglia tridattila (Turnix sylvatica).^[15][7]
3. (figurative, jocular) An attractive girl.^[6]
4. (derogatory) A prostitute.^[6]
5. (figurative) A gullible person.^[6]
6. (slang) A wallet.^[6] Arrostire la quaglia “to roast the quail”, to steal a wallet.^[6]

Word family

• quaglietta
• quagliodromo
• quagliara

Related words

• French caille
• Late Latin quaccola

Usage notes

Salto della quaglia is a fixed phrase of political language for switching alliances.^[15][7] Quaglia is also the third person singular present of quagliare “to curdle”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 35
13. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)