Etymologically
Log in

schiena

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 04:09. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈskjɛ.na/, /ˈskje.na/[1]

Forms

schiena f (plural schiene)[1] Old and dialect forms are Old Italian schena and Old Italian schina.[2] Popular Tuscan had stiena, used by Lorenzo de' Medici.[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Lombardic *skëna, a Germanic word for a long, narrow bone, the shin.[5][6][7][3][8] The Germanic noun is Old High German scina (“shin; needle”) and survives in German Schiene (“splint, rail”) and German Schienbein (“shinbone”), and a relative is English shin.[8][9][1] Its sense passed from “narrow bone” to “backbone” and then “back”.[8][10] Frankish gave French échine, and the word is also Occitan esquena, Catalan esquena and Spanish esquina (“corner”).[8][10][3]

The diphthong ⟨ie⟩ is unexpected beside the other forms: Venetian schena, Dalmatian scaina and Sardinian ischina.[3][10][8] Castellani explained it by an inserted ⟨l⟩, *sklena, which matches Lombard s'céna in Lombardy, and on this account DELI calls the Lombardic origin less certain.[11][8][3][2] DEI notes that the word replaced Latin dorsum (“back”) in most Italian dialects, as far south as Bari and the border of Lazio and Campania.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are in Il Fiore (1280–1310) and in Rustico di Filippo (before 1300), in the sense “back of the body”;[11][8][7] Nocentini dates the word to the first half of the 13th century, and Zingarelli to 1282.[11][8][7] In the Inferno the sinners in the boiling pitch show their backs like dolphins that signal to sailors with the arch of their back (“coll'arco della schiena”).[4]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning the word meant both the human back and the back of an animal, from the shoulders to the rump.[4][2] The derivative schienale meant the back in general about 1350, then a cut of meat (before 1492), the backplate of armour (1663) and the back of a chair (1778).[11] In geography the word names a rounded mountain ridge between two slopes.[5][6]

Many phrases use it: lavoro di schiena for heavy work, rompersi la schiena for working too hard, voltare la schiena for running away or abandoning someone, and colpire alla schiena for a treacherous blow.[7][12][13] A road or bridge a schiena d'asino is raised in the middle.[7][13]

Timeline

  • 1280–1310 – Schiena appears in Il Fiore.[11]
  • Before 1300 – Rustico di Filippo uses the word.[11]
  • c. 1350 – Schienale is used for the back in Crescenzi's translation.[11]
  • Before 1749 – Schienata, a blow with the back, is recorded.[11][8]
  • 1778 – Schienale is used for the back of a seat.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The back, the rear part of the human trunk from the neck to the waist: Ho un dolore alla schiena.[5][6][14]
  2. The spine: Mi è corso un brivido lungo la schiena.[5][13]
  3. The back of an animal: viaggiare a schiena di mulo.[5][6][14]
  4. A cut of meat from the back of a slaughtered animal.[5]
  5. (geography) A rounded mountain ridge dividing two slopes.[5][6][14]
  6. (historical) The backplate of armour (also schienale).[6][12]

Word family

  • schienale
  • schienata
  • dorso
  • spina
  • stinco
  • French échine
  • English shin

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3388
  4. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
  10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse