scilinguare

Forms

scilinguare (first-person singular present scilìnguo, first-person singular past historic scilinguài, past participle scilinguàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include iscilinguare, scelenguare and scialenguare.^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[4][5] Most dictionaries take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *exēlinguāre, formed with the intensive ex- on Latin ēlinguāre (“to deprive of the tongue”), which is related to Latin ēlinguis (“tongueless, speechless”).^{[1][6][7][8][9][10]} DEI accepts the Late Latin verb only with a “perhaps”, giving it the sense “to cut out or take away the tongue”.^[11][3]

Others see it as a back-formation from Italian scilinguato (“stammering”).^[2][12][11] The TLIO derives that adjective from Vulgar Latin *exēlinguātus, following Nocentini, while Giovanni Alessio, quoted by DELI, traced it to a Latin *sublinguis, modelled on the Latin adjective.^[2][5] Devoto–Oli derives the verb from scilinguagnolo (“frenulum of the tongue”).^[13]

That adjective is formed from the same prefix and lingua (“tongue”).^[1][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in a Sienese text dated before 1322, with the sense “to speak defectively”.^[2] The adjective scilinguato is older: Jacopone da Todi uses it at the end of the 13th century for someone with faulty pronunciation.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The old texts use it of the stammerer and of the child who can barely form words.^[3] An Italian version of Ovid's epistles has a girl crying scilinguando as a little child, and a gloss in an Italian Ovid explains that those who scilinguano say Franceco for Francesco.^[15][3] In the Storia di Mosè the infant Moses puts a live coal in his mouth, burns his tongue, and stammers for the rest of his life.^[3]

Varchi called scilinguare the proper verb for those who by nature cannot pronounce r and other sounds, beside balbettare.^[15] Landino glossed Latin balbutire as scilinguare, and Della Casa wrote of stammering for a long time to find a word.^[3][12] The GDLI also records it for speech hampered by shyness, emotion or affectation.^[3] Today it is rare and archaic.^[4][13][12]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – Jacopone da Todi uses scilinguato.^[2]
• Before 1322 – First record of scilinguare, in a Sienese text.^[2]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses scilinguagnolo.^[5]
• 16th century – Della Casa uses scilinguato as a noun.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, archaic) To stammer, to speak indistinctly; balbettare, farfugliare.^{[4][13][7][6][1]}
2. (intransitive) To be tongue-tied.^[1][8]

Word family

• scilinguatura

Related words

• lingua
• scilinguato
• scilinguagnolo
• Latin ēlinguis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3399
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET