soglia

Forms

soglia f (plural soglie)^[1] Old Italian also had a masculine Old Italian soglio “threshold”, used by Dante and Cavalca.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin solea (“sandal; sole”), the word for a sole or sandal, connected with solum (“ground; sole of the foot”).^[3][4][5][1] The same Latin word gave French seuil (“threshold”), with the same sense.^[4][6] It also survives in Friulian sueye, and Meyer-Lübke lists Welsh sail (“foundation”) among its outcomes.^[6] In Old French suele also meant a beam.^[6]

Meyer-Lübke calls the shift from “sole” to “threshold” striking.^[6] He suggested that it was helped by a Germanic word for the threshold, the one seen in German Schwelle, and Treccani agrees.^[6][7] Devoto names Old High German swelli.^[8] Nocentini points to the parallel of zoccolo, “clog”, which also names the raised base of a floor or wall.^[4]

The Latin noun is formed on the word for the ground, which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *se/olo- (“base, sole”) and Proto-Indo-European *se/ol-o- (“place, habitation”), the root of Old Church Slavonic село (selo, “field, village”) and Old High German sal (“room”).^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in Dante's Commedia (1313–1319), for the stone at the foot of a doorway: in Purgatorio the angel sits “in su la soglia” (“on the threshold”).^[3][10] Dante also used it figuratively for a beginning.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the threshold the word soon stood for the doorway or entrance as a whole, as in Cavalca's monks who were not to pass la soglia del chiostro.^[10][5] Literary Italian used the plural soglie for a house or dwelling, as in Alfieri's “A queste soglie”.^[11][7] In the Paradiso Dante uses soglie for the tiers on which the blessed sit.^[7]

The figurative sense of a beginning or the moment before a change (sulla soglia della vecchiaia) goes back to Dante, and Leopardi wrote of “la detestata soglia” of old age.^[3][12] Builders use the word for a window sill, and shipwrights for the uppermost strake of a wooden hull; geographers name a step between a side valley and a main valley soglia glaciale.^[7][13]

In the 20th century the sciences took the word for a minimum value: in psychology the point at which a stimulus still produces a response (1917–1927), in physics the lowest value at which an agent has an effect (1960).^[3] From these come everyday phrases such as soglia del dolore and soglia di povertà.^[5][12]

Timeline

• 1313–1319 – Dante uses soglia for a threshold and figuratively for a beginning.^[3]
• 1917–1927 – The psychological sense “threshold of a stimulus” is recorded.^[3]
• 1960 – The physical sense “minimum value for an effect” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. threshold, doorsill: the slab of stone, wood or other material at the foot of a doorway, between the jambs.^[5][13][7]
2. (by extension) A doorway, entrance: Lo aspettava sulla soglia di casa.^[5][14]
3. (figurative) The beginning of a period or state, the point just before it: alle soglie della primavera.^[5][14][13]
4. (literary) A house, dwelling.^[13][7]
5. (architecture) A window sill.^[13][15]
6. (science) The minimum value an agent or quantity must reach to produce an effect; in psychology, the lowest stimulus that is perceived: soglia del dolore.^[5][13][12]
7. (geography) A step between a hanging valley and a main valley, or at the lip of a waterfall: soglia glaciale.^[13][15]
8. (nautical) The uppermost and strongest strake of a wooden hull.^[13][15]

Word family

• controsoglia
• soglio

Related words

• suola
• suolo
• sogliola
• Latin solea
• French seuil

Usage notes

Soglia often stands before a noun as an invariable modifier: valore soglia, livello soglia.^[14][15] An old soglia was a name of the sogliola, the sole, from the same Latin word because of its flat shape; it is found in Landino and Pulci.^[10][11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 926
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ 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 Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 412
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. 19
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana