stuolo

Forms

stuolo m (plural stuoli)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin stolus (“fleet”), from Ancient Greek στόλος (stólos, “military expedition; army, fleet”), from στέλλω (stéllō, “to equip, make ready, send”).^[2][3][4][1] The Late Latin word is found in the Codex Theodosianus and in Hegesippus.^[5][6] Battaglia's dictionary calls the Greek verb of uncertain origin.^[7] DELI compares apostolo, from the same Greek verb.^[2]

The same word is Old Occitan estol and Catalan estol “fleet, army, retinue”, and Old Spanish estol comes from Catalan.^[8][6] Battisti and Alessio take the Occitan and Catalan words from Italian, without ruling out a direct source for Occitan.^[9] Romanian stol has a separate source in Modern Greek.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, in the sense of an armed host: Charles came to meet him “with a great host of people” (con un grande stuolo di gente).^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used stuolo both for an army and for a fleet of warships.^[9][10] Dante has Alexander seeing flames fall on his army in India and Caesar turning lo stuolo towards Spain, and the word stays in epic poetry with Ariosto and Tasso.^[5][7] From the 14th century it also means simply a multitude.^[9] Leopardi calls the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae il santo stuolo.^[10]

Today the word is literary or used with humorous emphasis, as in uno stuolo di fotografi.^[4][10] In Molfetta and Andria stuele is a flock of birds.^[8][9]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses stuolo.^[2][11]
• 14th century – The general sense “multitude” appears.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A fleet of warships.^[4][12][10]
2. (archaic) An armed host, an army.^[4][12][13]
3. (literary) A crowd, a large number of people or animals, often with humorous emphasis: aveva intorno uno stuolo di cugini.^[4][13][10]

Related words

• apostolo
• Latin stolus
• Ancient Greek στόλος (stólos)

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3664
10. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse