radicina

Forms

radicina f (plural radicine)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian radice + -ina, a diminutive.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary instead takes it from Late Latin rādīcīna, first recorded in Pelagonius in the second half of the 4th century, and calls the Italian analysis a surface one.^[1]

Latin rādīx (“root”) goes back to Proto-Italic *wrād-ī- and Proto-Indo-European *ur(e)h₂-d-iH- (“root”), in which the ⟨-d-⟩ was probably a suffix.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

GDLI's earliest example is in Iacopone da Todi, figuratively: humility is the pit where the tree is planted, and if the little root takes hold there it swells by drawing up moisture, si la radicina loco acchianta, / engrossace a trar l’umiditate.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The Anonimo romano describes floods that tore trees out by the roots, and an old medical handbook prescribes rootlets of celandine and fennel.^[2] Lauro's agricultural treatise tells the gardener to strip every rootlet from a leek before replanting it.^[2][3] In botany the word came to mean the fine, almost hair-like secondary roots that grow on the taproot.^[2][7]

Tommaseo records that in some dialects the plural meant the radishes that Tuscans call radici.^[3] Soffici has a street seller crying cooked spinach and radicine, tender chicory.^[2] Zingarelli gives 1871 as the date of the word.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small root, a rootlet: Ogni radicina va tolta prima di trapiantare la pianta.^{[7][4][5][2][3]}
2. (botany) The same as radichetta.^[7][4][5][1]
3. (botany, uncommon) A secondary root.^[7][2]
4. (regional) A radish, the same as ravanello.^[4][5][1][3]

Related words

• radice
• radicella
• radichetta
• Latin rādīx

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 270
3. ^ a b c d e f Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET