raia

Forms

raia f (plural raie)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin răia (“ray (fish)”), also the scientific name of the genus.^[2][3][1] The popular word for the fish is razza², which comes from the same Latin word through Venetian raza.^[2][3] Nocentini treats the learned word as a southern variant of the popular one.^[3] The Latin word gave French raie, Occitan raia, Spanish raya and Portuguese arraia.^[4][5]

The origin of the Latin word is disputed.^[2][6][3][7] DELI calls it unknown and Zingarelli pre-Indo-European.^[2][8] GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Cortelazzo–Marcato derive it from radius (“ray”) for the fish's shape.^[6][9][10] Nocentini derives it from a feminine *radia of the same word in the sense of a spine, after the spiny skin, and notes that names of the ray often match names of thorny plants.^[3] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *rajjā and compares Middle Dutch rogghe and Old English reohhe, both meaning ray, which may point to a word borrowed from a substrate language.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from C. Landino in 1476, in his translation of Pliny, where the torpedo fish and the raia hide in the mud.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

Later naturalists used raia in their lists of flat cartilaginous fish, and one noted that the ray was popularly called slimy and was poor people's food.^[11] The form was in use at Rome in the 16th century.^[2] In 1872 Tommaseo's dictionary marked razza as the better word.^[2]

Today raia is a regional name, chiefly southern, for the rays, and the Latin name of the genus in zoology.^[6][9][10]

Timeline

• 1476 – C. Landino uses raia in his translation of Pliny.^[2][11]
• 1500s – Raia is recorded at Rome.^[2]
• 1872 – Tommaseo's dictionary prefers razza.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, southern) A ray or skate, the flat cartilaginous fish usually called razza².^[6][9][10]
2. (zoology) A fish of the genus Raja, of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic; with a capital letter, the genus itself.^[6][11]

Word family

• raide

Related words

• razza
• raggio
• Latin raia

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
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. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET
11. ^ 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