staio

Forms

staio m (plural stai m or staia f or (archaic) staiora f)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sextārius (“a sixth part of a measure”), from sextus (“sixth”).^[2][3][4][5] The Latin measure was a sixth of the congius.^[6][7][8] Devoto explains the loss of the middle syllable of ⟨s(ex)tarius⟩ as syllabic dissimilation, while Wiktionary treats the word as a clipping of sestaio or sestario.^[9][1] The short form is already Medieval Latin starium, at Padua in 1170 and at Bobbio in 1177.^[8][2]

The word is found in the west of the Romance area: French setier, Occitan sestier and, in the Engadine and Friuli, Romansh ster and Friulian ster.^[3][10][8] It passed into Old High German sehstāri, whence German Sechter and Sester, and into the Celtic languages of the islands, as Irish sesra and Welsh hestor.^[3][8][10] The word sestiere in this sense is a later loan from Old French sestier.^[8][10]

Latin sex (“six”) goes back to Proto-Italic *seks and Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is in a Tuscan inventory of 1221, which counts “twenty staia of grain” (XX staia di grano), with the sense of a measure of capacity for grain and other dry goods.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The container used for the measure, a cylindrical wooden vessel with hooped staves, is named by the word before 1300, in Rustico di Filippo.^[2][7] The measure of land, as much ground as a staio of grain will sow, is recorded before 1571 in Benvenuto Cellini.^[2] The value of the staio differed from town to town: 24.36 litres in Tuscany, 18.27 at Milan, 47.04 at Parma and 83.31 at Venice.^[7] It is still used for grain in the Tuscan countryside.^[12][7]

The old plural staiora (also stiora) produced a new singular staioro, and northern Italian has stioro.^[7][10] Phrases grew around the vessel: a staia “in great quantity”, cappello a staio for the top hat, and Tuscan colmare lo staio “to finish the job”.^[6][7] In phrases from the Bible staio stands for moggio, the bushel under which the lamp is hidden, as in Catherine of Siena.^[7]

Timeline

• 1170 – Medieval Latin starium is recorded at Padua.^[2][8]
• 1177 – Starium is recorded at Bobbio.^[8]
• 1221 – Staia of grain are counted in a Tuscan inventory.^[2]
• Before 1300 – Rustico di Filippo uses staio for the measuring vessel.^[2]
• Before 1571 – Benvenuto Cellini uses staio as a measure of land.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A measure of capacity for grain, pulses and other dry goods, used in Italy before the metric system and differing from place to place: a staia “in great quantity”.^{[4][12][6][7]}
2. The cylindrical wooden vessel with hooped staves that holds one staio.^[4][12][6]: cappello a staio “top hat”.^[6][13]
3. (historical, agriculture) A measure of land: the area that one staio of grain will sow.^[4][12][14]

Word family

• staiata
• staioro

Related words

• sestiere
• sestario
• sesto
• Latin sextārius
• French setier

Usage notes

The plural is le staia (feminine) for the measures of grain and land and gli stai (masculine) for the vessel;^[12][14][6] le staiora is archaic.^[12][14][6] An old form of the word is staro.^[6][15] Battaglia's dictionary also records a separate staio that is a variant of staggio.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3614
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 424
10. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 49