subbia

Forms

subbia f (plural subbie)^[1] The older spelling is Old Italian subia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *subla, the contracted form of Latin sūbula (“awl”).^[1][4][5][6] The contracted form is already found in an inscription, and the full form is in the Vienna glossary of the 11th century.^[7][8]

The same Latin word survives in Romanian sulă, Sardinian sula, Friulian subla and the Engadine süvla.^[5][9] Venetian has subia and Neapolitan suglia.^[8] It also passed into Berber, where tisubla means a large needle or nail.^[8][9]

Latin subula is an instrument noun of suō (“to sew”).^[7][10][4] Nocentini reconstructs it as *sū-dʰlā, from the root *sū- that also gave cucire.^[5] Wiktionary gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *syewH- (“to sew”) with the tool suffix *-dʰlom, and compares Proto-Slavic *šidlo (“awl”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's only Old Italian record is in a Tuscan translation of the Bible of the 14th or 15th century, where the tool is a stout pointed iron set in a handle, used to pierce a servant's ear: “Perforerà le orecchie sue con la subia” (he will pierce his ears with the awl).^[2][3] DELI dates the stonemason's chisel to the Florentine carnival songs of the late 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “awl”, the one Latin had, survives in the north and centre of Italy, while standard Italian uses the word for the sculptor's and stonemason's chisel.^[11][12][13] Treccani notes that Late Latin already had the chisel sense.^[13] Vasari describes how sculptors first rough out a marble statue with the subbia, and Cellini says that a very fine one does not stun the marble.^[3][14]

Galileo wrote of a terror so great that no one would have dared to face the creature even with the chisel and mallet.^[14] In Tuscan the word has also been used for a tall, very thin person.^[3] The verb subbiare, to rough out stone with the chisel, is recorded from 1618 in Buonarroti the Younger.^[8]

Timeline

• 14th–15th century – Subia, an awl, in a Tuscan Bible translation.^[2]
• Late 15th century – The stonemason's chisel in the Florentine carnival songs.^[4][5]
• 1618 – Subbiare in Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heavy steel chisel with a four-sided pyramidal or conical point, used to rough out stone and other hard materials: Lo scalpellino sbozzava il blocco con la subbia.^[6][12][13]
2. (regional, northern and central) An awl, the shoemaker's tool for piercing leather.^[6][11][15]

Word family

• subbiare
• subbietta
• subbiolo

Related words

• cucire
• Latin subula

Usage notes

Tommaseo records an obsolete sense, a pile driven into a river as support for a military bridge, translating the Latin of Caesar.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it, p. 24, 196
3. ^ a b c d 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 d 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3667
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b 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 c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 4, 1285
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli