spalla

Forms

spalla f (plural spalle, diminutive spallétta)^[1] The old and dialect form is Old Italian spala.^[2][3] The old plural spalli survives in rural Tuscan.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *spatla, the syncopated form of Latin spatula (“spatula, stirring spoon”), which in Late Latin came to mean the shoulder blade and the shoulder.^[6][7][2][1] The Latin word is a diminutive of spatha (“broad flat blade; broadsword”), which Latin took from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “any broad blade”).^[7][1][8] The learned spatola is a doublet, and spada continues the Latin word for the blade.^[1][7]

The shift of meaning probably happened in the kitchen: the cook Apicius already used the word for a pork shoulder.^[6][7] Migliorini, quoted by DELI, noted that gamba and this word were first used of animals and then of people, as cooking terms like fegato and cervello passed into common use.^[6]

The Romance forms keep the cluster ⟨tl⟩ or assimilate it to ⟨ll⟩, instead of the usual change of ⟨tl⟩ to ⟨cl⟩, a sign that the vowel was lost late.^[7][9] The same word is French épaule, Occitan espatla, Catalan espatlla and Spanish espalda.^[7][10] Romanian has spată “shoulder” from that simple noun itself.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Medieval Latin document from Sulmona already has spalla in 1119, for the shoulder as a cut of meat.^[6] The first Italian record is in Giacomino da Verona, in the second half of the 13th century, for the human shoulder; he describes demons breaking the bones and shoulders of the damned with clubs.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Dante (1300–1313) used the word for the slope of a hill: guardai in alto, e vidi le sue spalle (“I looked up, and saw its shoulders”).^[6][11] The plural came to mean the back, and many phrases grew from it: alzare le spalle “to shrug”, alle spalle di “at the expense of”, avere le spalle larghe “to be able to take criticism”.^[12][13] Fare spallucce, to shrug in indifference, is recorded in 1735.^[6]

Newer senses include the part of a garment that covers the shoulder and the shoulder as a cut of meat (both recorded by Carena in 1846), part of a printing type (1853), and the straight man of a comic in revue theatre (1960).^[6] In journalism an articolo di spalla sits at the top right of a page.^[13] DEI also records military and naval uses: a defensive earthwork (16th century, Machiavelli) and the quarter of a galley near the stern.^[4] The naval sense passed into French as espale (1622), and French espalier is a loan from spalliera.^[14][4]

Timeline

• 1119 – Medieval Latin spalla is recorded at Sulmona for a cut of meat.^[6]
• Second half of the 13th century – Giacomino da Verona uses spalla.^[6][3]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for the slope of a hill.^[6]
• Before 1363 – Spalliera “chair back” is recorded in Matteo Villani.^[6]
• 1598 – Florio records spallata “push with the shoulder”.^[6]
• 1735 – The Crusca records fare spallucce.^[6]
• 1846 – Carena records the senses “cut of meat” and “shoulder of a garment”.^[6]
• 1960 – The theatre sense “straight man” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The shoulder: each of the two parts of the body between the base of the neck and the top of the arm.^{[2][15][16][13][1]}
2. (in the plural) The upper back: Si è messo il maglione sulle spalle.^{[2][16][13][1]}
3. In four-legged animals, the top of the forelegs; the cut of meat from it: spalla di maiale.^[2][16][1]
4. The part of a garment that covers the shoulder.^[16][6][1]
5. (figurative) A person who gives valuable support to another; in comedy, the straight man who feeds lines to the comic.^[16][6][1]
6. The upper slope of a mountain or hill.^[16][6]
7. (journalism) The top right-hand part of a newspaper page: articolo di spalla.^[13]

Word family

• spalliera
• spallina
• spalletta
• spallata
• spalleggiare
• spallaccio
• spalluccia
• spallucciata
• spallone
• spallarm
• sottospalla

Related words

• spatola
• spada
• Latin spatula
• French épaule

Usage notes

Common phrases include alzare or stringersi nelle spalle (“to shrug”), a spalla (“on one's shoulders”), vivere alle spalle di qualcuno (“to live at someone's expense”) and violino di spalla (“leader of the orchestra, first violin”).^[13][15][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3575
5. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 418
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse