segale

Forms

segale f (plural segali)^[1] The variant segala is standard beside segale.^[2][3][4][5] Old Italian forms include segola, sechale, secala and segre.^[6][7] The GDLI also lists a masculine ségolo, which it places in Tuscany.^[8]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sēcale (“rye”), a neuter noun.^{[9][10][11][1]}

The same word is French seigle, Occitan seguel and Catalan segle, which go back to a form stressed on the first syllable, while Friulian siale and Romanian secară are stressed on the second.^[10][12] Meyer-Lübke lists among the Italian forms Venetian segala and the Old Italian segola beside Lombard segra, Sicilian sigra and Piedmontese seil.^[12]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[10][13] Nocentini, the OLD and Wiktionary take it as a loan from an unidentified source, perhaps a language of the Balkans.^[10][13][1] A link with secō (“to cut”), which the Italian Wiktionary gives, is ruled out by Meyer-Lübke on the quality of the vowel and the form of the word.^[14][12] He thought the original stress was on the first syllable.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is segala in a Veronese document of about 1205, published by Stussi; the TLIO marks the date with a query.^[9][6] The form segale appears around 1350 in the Italian translation of Crescenzi's treatise on agriculture, which says that rye bears more cold than wheat.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named both the cereal and its grain, and in Old Italian also bread made from it.^[6] The GDLI quotes Ca' da Mosto's account of Senegal, where “neither wheat nor rye nor barley” grows.^[8]

The adjective segaligno, first “of rye” (sechalingna, 1284), came to mean “lean and wiry”, said of a person, by the 16th century, in Cecchi before 1587.^[9] DELI finds the reason unclear: Tommaseo thought of people fed on rye bread, while the long thin stalk is a likelier model, and in the mountains around Pistoia è un ségale is said of a tall thin person.^[9][7] Nocentini links the sense to the rye bread.^[10]

Segale cornuta is ergot, a disease of rye and other grasses caused by a parasitic fungus, and the drug made from it.^[4][5][15]

Timeline

• c. 1205 – Segala appears in a document from Verona.^[9][6]
• 1284 – Sechalingna, the adjective segaligno “of rye”, is recorded.^[9]
• c. 1350 – The form segale appears in the Italian Crescenzi.^[9]
• 1472 – Segalino “of rye” appears in the statute of the Siena customs office.^[9]
• Before 1587 – G. M. Cecchi uses segaligno of a lean but healthy person.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. rye, a cereal grass (Secale cereale) like wheat, with long narrow leaves and a long bearded ear, grown especially in cold and mountain areas.^[11][2][5]
2. The grain of this plant, from which a dark flour is made for bread and fodder: pane di segale.^[11][3][4]
3. (botany) segale cornuta: ergot, the fungal disease of rye and other grasses, and the drug obtained from it.^[4][5][15]

Word family

• segaligno
• segalino

Related words

• Latin secale
• French seigle

Usage notes

Segale and segala are both standard.^[2][3][4] A Tuscan proverb recorded by Tommaseo says rye wants dry ground and wheat wet: La segale nella polverina e il grano nella pantanina.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
7. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
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, p. 18, 449
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET