stringa

Forms

stringa f (plural stringhe)^[1] Northern Italy had Old Italian strenga in the 14th century.^[2] The GDLI gives strénga as an old variant.^[3]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[4][5] The usual explanation is that it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *strĭnga, a deverbal noun of Latin stringere (“to bind fast”) in the sense “to lace up”.^{[4][6][7][8][2]} DELI compares strĭnges in Isidore.^[4] The form Medieval Latin stringa is recorded at Parma in the 14th century.^[4]

Diez rejected a derivation from stringere because that verb would not give a noun with a velar, and connected the word with a Germanic stem seen in Old English string (“cord”) and Old High German stranga (“rope”), followed by Körting.^[9][10] Zaccaria thought it a late medieval entry rather than a loan of the migration period.^[9] DEI rejects a Gothic source as needless.^[2] REW lists the Italian word among the derivatives of stringere, beside Spanish estringa (“lace”).^[11]

The senses of computing and linguistics come from English string, as a calque of meaning.^{[7][12][13][3]} Latin stringō goes back to Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (“to draw, tie”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

After the Medieval Latin stringa of 14th-century Parma, the first Italian record is in Ugolino Martelli in 1437, who notes lending a steel corselet “with a lace threaded through its collar” (con una stringa infilzata nel collare).^[4][3][5] The sense was a lace or thong for fastening clothes.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Laces with metal tips held doublets and hose together, and Machiavelli imagines a rule that men should go without stringhe and use pins instead.^[3] Garzoni lists the ferrastrenghe who fitted the tips, and DEI records the word for a surgeon's bandage in 1585.^[15][2] In the 19th century Tommaseo describes it as a ribbon with brass tips, called aghetto in Florence.^[15] Today it is mainly the lace of a shoe or of a corset.^[5][7]

The verb stringare “to lace tightly” follows in Davanzati before 1600, and by 1606 it also meant “to make concise”, the sense of stringato.^[4] From the 1970s the word took the senses of English string: a sequence of linguistic elements in Chomskyan terms (1971), a sequence of bits or characters in computing (1982), and later the strings of physics.^[3][7][16] In Livorno stringa is the red bandfish.^[13][5]

Timeline

• 14th century – Medieval Latin stringa at Parma, and northern strenga.^[4][2]
• 1437 – Ugolino Martelli has stringa “lace”.^[4][5]
• c. 1470 – Tranchedino uses the word.^[2]
• 1585 – Garzoni uses it for a surgeon's bandage.^[2]
• Before 1600 – Davanzati uses stringare “to lace tightly”.^[4]
• Before 1606 – Stringare and stringato mean “to make concise” and “concise”.^[4]
• 1873 – Stringatezza is recorded in Tommaseo–Bellini.^[4]
• 1971 – G. R. Cardona uses stringa in its linguistic sense.^[3]
• 1982 – La Stampa explains stringhe of bits in computing.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lace, shoelace: a cord or narrow strip, often with metal or plastic tips, for fastening shoes, corsets and other clothes: si è slacciata una stringa.^[5][7][16]
2. A series or sequence of elements of the same kind.^[5][13]
3. (computing) A string: a finite sequence of characters or bits stored as data: stringa di caratteri.^[5][7][16]
4. (linguistics) A linear sequence of elements such as phonemes or morphemes in a set order.^[5][7][12]
5. (physics) A one-dimensional extended object generalising the point particle: teoria delle stringhe.^[7][16]
6. (regional, Livorno) The red bandfish, a fish of the genus Cepola.^[5][13]

Word family

• stringare
• stringato
• stringatezza
• stringaio
• stringhetta
• superstringa

Related words

• stringere
• Latin stringo
• English string

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3657
3. ^ a b c d e f g Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 364
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli