quercia

Forms

quercia f (plural querce)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin quercea, the feminine of the adjective querceus (“of oak”) used as a noun, with arbor (“tree”) understood.^[2][3][4][1] Querceus is from Latin quercus (“oak”).^[2][1] Latin quercus itself survives only in Sardinian chercu, and the derivatives querceto and quercino came into Italian as learned words.^[3][2]

A variant *cercea gave the southern forms such as Neapolitan cerza and Sicilian cerza, and cerqua in Umbria, Rome and the Abruzzi; a place name ⟨Cerquetu⟩ is recorded in 964.^[5][1][6] Quercus continues Proto-Italic *kʷerkʷu-, from Proto-Indo-European *perkw-o/u- (“kind of oak”), with the first consonant assimilated to the second, as is regular in Italic and Celtic.^[7][3] The Germanic cognates include Old High German forha (“Scots pine”), whence German Föhre, and Lombardic fereha (“kind of oak”).^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a San Gimignano document of 1281, for the tree with acorns;^[8][2] DELI cites a 13th-century Florentine text.^[8][2] Old forms include querza, cherça, querce and guercia.^[8]

Semantic evolution

By about 1340 the word also named the hard, heavy wood, in the vernacular Palladius.^[2] In the classical tradition the quercia dodonea was the oracle of Dodona.^[8] Dante contrasts a good beginning with the long time “from the birth of the oak to the making of the acorn”.^[9] Tuscan keeps querce, plural querci.^[10][11]

The tree became a figure of strength (essere una quercia), and it became the symbol of the Partito Democratico della Sinistra, so that la Quercia came to stand for the party itself in the press.^[4][12][13]

Timeline

• 964 – The place name Cerquetu is recorded.^[6]
• 1281 – Quercia appears in a San Gimignano document.^[8]
• c. 1340 – The vernacular Palladius uses quercia for oak wood.^[2]
• c. 1350 – Querceto appears in the vernacular Crescenzi.^[2]
• Before 1597 – G. Soderini uses quercino.^[2]
• 1993 – The press calls the Partito Democratico della Sinistra la Quercia.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. An oak: a tall, long-lived tree with lobed leaves whose fruit is the acorn, especially the common oak Quercus robur: All'ombra della quercia pascolavano le pecore.^[4][10][11]
2. (botany, capitalised) The genus Quercus of the beech family.^[4][11][10]
3. Oak wood, hard and heavy, used for barrels, furniture and building: un tavolo di quercia.^[4][11][14]
4. (figurative) A very strong, sturdy person: Mio zio, a novant'anni, è ancora una quercia.^[4][10][11]
5. (politics, capitalised) The oak symbol of the Partito Democratico della Sinistra, and the party itself.^[4][12]

Word family

• querciola
• querciolo
• quercione
• quercioso
• querceta

Related words

• querceto
• quercino
• quercitrone
• rovere
• Latin quercus

Usage notes

The plural is querce, literary quercie;^[12][13][10] Tuscan and literary Italian also have the singular querce with the plural querci.^[12][13][10] Named kinds include quercia da sughero (cork oak), quercia gentile (pedunculate oak) and quercia dei tintori (quercitron); quercia marina is the bladderwrack seaweed.^[12][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 815
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli