Etymologically
Log in

selce

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Italian word selce

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1305–1306 Fra Giordano, Quaresimale, as selice More words from the 14th century
Inherited from
Latin silex
Ultimate origin
Latin silex
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin silex
Italian selce
From the same root
English silicate ← silex

Pronunciation

  • /ˈsel.t͡ʃe/[1]

Forms

selce f (plural selci)[1] The older form is Old Italian selice.[2][3][4] The masculine selcio is regional, and poets also use selce as a masculine.[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin silex (“hard stone, flint”).[2][7][3][1] The Latin word named any hard stone used for building or tools: granite, flint, lava, basalt.[7] It is the popular word beside the learned silice.[5][8]

The Latin noun is of uncertain origin and has no sure cognates.[2][7][9] DEI compares it, with a question, with Old High German chisil and German Kiesel (“gravel”).[8] Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny assumed an older form with initial /sk/, linking it with Latin siliqua (“pod”), but de Vaan rejects this and doubts that the stone and the pod belong together.[9]

Outside Italian the word survives in the southern French dialect form seuze, and its verb in Romansh salazer and Friulian salizâ, “to pave”.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is selice in Fra Giordano's Lenten sermons of 1305–1306;[2] selce follows about 1350 in the translation of Crescenzi.[2] The sense is the very hard rock made mostly of silica.[2]

Semantic evolution

In poetry selce stood for stone in general, often as a symbol of hardness: Petrarch speaks of Medusa turning Atlas, the old Moor, into stone (in selce).[3][4] From the early 17th century (Vincenzo Scamozzi) the plural names the squared stones that pave streets.[2]

The verb selciare “to pave” and the participle selciato “pavement” go back to the Sienese statutes of 1309–1310, in the forms seliciare and seliciato.[2] DEI notes place names derived from the word in Tuscany from the 11th century, and Veronese séles'e for the paved threshing floor.[8]

Timeline

  • 1305–1306 – Fra Giordano uses selice.[2]
  • 1309–1310 – Seliciare and seliciato in the Sienese statutes.[2]
  • c. 1350 – Selce in the translation of Crescenzi.[2]
  • Before 1616 – Scamozzi uses the plural for paving stones.[2]
  • 1729 – The fourth Crusca dictionary has selciare and selciato.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (geology) flint, chert: a fine-grained, very hard sedimentary rock of silica, mostly microcrystalline quarzo with chalcedony and opal, used in prehistory for weapons and tools and now for millstones and building.[3][4][11]
  2. (literary) A stone, a rock, especially as an image of hardness.[3][4][12]
  3. (usually plural) A squared block of stone for paving streets and squares; also masculine: Hanno rifatto la piazza con selci nuove.[3][4][11]

Word family

  • selciare
  • selciato
  • selciatore
  • selciatura
  • selcioso
  • disselciare
  • selciaio

Usage notes

Selce piromaca is flint, the stone once used to strike fire, and selce molare a porous variety used for millstones.[3][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3444
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Selce.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/selce. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·