radicchio

Forms

radicchio m (plural radicchi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian radichio, Old Italian radechio, Old Italian radicio and Old Italian radigio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *rādīculum, from Latin rādīcula (“little root”), a diminutive of rādīx (“root”).^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Wiktionary, the GRADIT, Treccani and the GDLI derive it from the classical word directly, with an early loss of the unstressed *u* and a change of gender.^{[1][9][10][2]}

Meyer-Lübke records the same Latin word in Venetian raico at Treviso, Friulian radigle “hellebore” and Welsh rhuddygl, and Körting in Sardinian raiga.^[11][12] Wiktionary compares Romanian ridiche.^[1]

Prati notes that northern dialects keep the *d*, which shows that the word reached them recently, as did cicoria.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form radichio in a Roman recipe book of 1434–1449;^[3][2] radicchio appears before 1449 in Burchiello, in the sense of chicory grown in a garden.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Tuscan place names such as Radicchia and Radiclita (1138) show the word or its Latin source early.^[13] Burchiello's friar complains to the wind that it wakes il radicchio del mio orto “the radicchio in my garden” while it is still too small.^[2]

Tommaseo treats radicchio as the same as cicoria, and quotes Soderini's remark that what the Tuscans call radicchio the Romans call cicoria; the wild plant gathered with a knife in fields and along banks was radicchio scoltellato.^[14] The GDLI calls it the usual name in Tuscany and central and southern Italy.^[2] Modern dictionaries name the cultivated red variety, radicchio rosso or trevigiano.^[8][15][9]

English borrowed the word by 1981, with an example from 1978, and German has Radicchio.^[16][1] It was also borrowed into Greek and Ottoman Turkish.^[1]

Timeline

• 1434–1449 – radichio appears in a Roman recipe book.^[3]
• Before 1449 – Burchiello uses radicchio.^[3][2]
• 1978 – the earliest English example of radicchio.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) Chicory, cicoria (Cichorium intybus), and especially its cultivated varieties.^{[9][10][17][6]}
2. The common name of several wild herbaceous plants of the Compositae that grow in meadows.^[5][8]
3. The bitter edible leaves, eaten raw in salads or cooked: radicchio alla piastra con un filo d'olio.^[9][15]

Word family

• radicchietto
• radicchiella
• radicchiello

Related words

• radice
• cicoria
• Latin rādīx
• radicchio

Usage notes

Radicchio rosso (also trevigiano or di Treviso) is the red-leaved variety with violet-red leaves.^[8][15][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
13. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 818
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli