scimmia

Forms

scimmia f (plural scimmie, augmentative scimmione)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian scigna, Old Italian scimia, Old Italian simia and Old Italian ximia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Italian scimia, inherited from Latin sīmia (“ape, monkey”), beside which Latin had a rarer masculine sīmius.^[3][4][1] The Latin word is derived from sīmus (“snub-nosed”), borrowed from Ancient Greek σιμός (simós, “snub-nosed”), which is of unknown origin.^[3][4][1]

The same Latin word gave French singe (masculine), Occitan simia, Catalan simi and the obsolete Spanish jimia.^[4][5]

Latin /s/ before a front vowel became /ʃ/, as in sciringa beside siringa, and the /m/ before /j/ was doubled after the stress, the normal Tuscan outcome of /mj/.^[6][7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Giacomo da Lentini's scigna, between about 1230 and 1250: Love “does not want me to resemble an ape that watches every face” (non vuol ch'io resembri a scigna, / c'ogni viso tene mente).^[3][2][8] The sense is the animal, already seen as an imitator.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bono Giamboni describes the simia as a beast that resembles man in many ways and gladly copies what it sees men do,^[8][3] and the Novellino tells of a merchant whose caps were seized by monkeys, each of which put one on.^[8][9] The animal stood for the imitator, a sense DELI dates to Dante (1310–1313), and in Old Italian also for an ugly woman and for the devil.^[3][2] The form scimmia appears in the 14th-century Italian Marco Polo.^[3]

Fanfani in 1863 records scimmia for an ugly, spiteful person.^[3] In slang it came to mean drunkenness, from the disorderly antics of monkeys, at Pisa, Volterra, Monte Amiata and in Umbria, and in Rome as scimia.^[10][11] In drug slang avere la scimmia (sulla spalla) is to be addicted or in withdrawal, a calque of English to have a monkey on one's back.^[12][6] The verb scimmiottare, to ape, came from northern Italy.^[3]

Timeline

• About 1230–1250 – Giacomo da Lentini writes scigna.^[3][2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses simia.^[3]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino has scimia and the augmentative scimmione.^[3][10]
• 1310–1313 – Dante uses scimia for an imitator.^[3]
• 14th century – Scimmia appears in the Italian Marco Polo.^[3]
• 1561 – Simiotto, a young monkey, is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1793 – Goldoni uses scimiottare “to ape”.^[3]
• 1863 – Fanfani records scimmia for an ugly, spiteful person.^[3]
• 1977 – Sabatini–Coletti dates the slang sense “drunkenness; withdrawal” to this year.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. monkey, ape: the common name of the primates other than man, mostly tree-dwelling, with grasping hands and feet.^[13][12][14]
2. (figurative) A person who imitates others' gestures and manners, a mimic;^[13][15][14] fare la scimmia a qualcuno, to imitate someone mockingly.^[13][15][14]
3. (figurative, derogatory) An ugly or spiteful person: brutto come una scimmia.^[13][15][12]
4. (regional, slang) drunkenness, a drinking bout.^[13][14][6]
5. (slang) Drug addiction; withdrawal: avere la scimmia sulla spalla.^[13][12][15]
6. (historical) An instrument devised in the 18th century by gun makers to check the bore of a cannon.^[13]

Word family

• scimmiotto
• scimmiottare
• scimmione
• scimmiesco
• scimmietta
• scimmiata
• scimmieggiare
• scimmiaggine

Related words

• simo
• Latin simia
• French singe

Usage notes

Brutto come una scimmia, dispettoso come una scimmia and arrampicarsi come una scimmia are common similes for ugliness, spite and agility.^[12][15][14] A Tuscan proverb says that a monkey stays a monkey even when dressed in silk (La scimmia è sempre scimmia, anche vestita di seta).^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli