suola

Forms

suola f (plural suole)^[1] The popular and regional form is sola.^[2][3][4] Old Italian also has the archaic form soia.^[5]

Etymology

DELI calls the etymology not fully settled and follows Alessio: the starting point is inherited from Latin sola, the plural of solum (“ground, bottom; sole”), which gave Old Italian suolo, with the plurals suola and sola already in the Italian translation of Pier de' Crescenzi.^[6] Northern Italian documents of the 13th century have the plural solas, and the form sola still lives in northern and southern dialects; since the word was used of shoes, which come in pairs, the plural prevailed.^[6] Nocentini, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli give the same source: the Latin neuter plural, meaning “soles of the feet”, was reinterpreted as a feminine singular.^[7][8][2]

An older view, in REW, Prati's VEI and Pellegrini in DEI, started from a singular rebuilt on the plural of solea (“sandal, sole”).^[6][9] DELI rejects it on phonetic grounds, since that word was pronounced with /lj/ in Vulgar Latin and gave soglia.^[6] Sabatini–Coletti, Treccani and the GDLI keep the plural of “ground” but allow a semantic overlap with “sandal”, and Wiktionary still gives the older derivation.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin word for the sandal is itself derived from the one for the ground.^[1]

The same word is Old French suele, Old Occitan sola, Spanish suela, Portuguese sola, Romansh soula and Friulian suele.^[7][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Florio's Italian–English dictionary of 1598, for the part of the shoe that rests on the ground.^[6][8] DEI dates it to 1585, in Garzoni, with both the shoe and the underside of a hoof.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The feminine singular long met resistance in Tuscany: in 1855 Fanfani's dictionary called suola an error and held that Tuscans said only the plural le suola of suolo.^[6] DEI notes that the type suolo remained Tuscan and Umbrian, while suola is found in all the dialects.^[10]

The word spread from the shoe to similar flat undersides: the ventral part of a mammal's hoof (1692), the running surface of a ski (1960), and in many devices the lower face or part (1895), such as the base of a rail, the sole of a plane or the hearth of a furnace.^[6][8][11] In slang it also took over the sense “swindle” of sola.^[2] In older Italian suola (or sola) was also a name for the sole, the flatfish now called sogliola, compared to the sole of a shoe.^[12]

Timeline

• 1598 – Florio records suola for the sole of a shoe.^[6]
• 1692 – The sense “ventral part of the hoof” is recorded.^[6]
• 1855 – Fanfani's dictionary rejects the feminine singular as un-Tuscan.^[6]
• 1895 – The sense “lower face of a device” is recorded.^[6]
• 1960 – The word is used for the underside of a ski.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sole of a shoe, the part that rests on the ground, in a narrower sense the front part as against the heel: sandali con la suola di sughero.^{[8][2][11][1]}
2. (zoology) The underside of a horse's hoof, which with the frog forms its bearing surface.^{[8][2][11][1]}
3. (uncommon) The running surface of a ski; soletta.^[8][11]
4. In various devices, the lower face or part: the base of a rail resting on the sleeper, the flat underside of a plane.^[8][11]
5. (slang, uncommon) A swindle; sola.^[2]

Word family

• risuolare
• risolare
• risuolatura
• soletta
• soprassuola
• suolificio

Related words

• suolo
• soglia
• sogliola
• Latin solum
• Latin solea

Usage notes

Mezza suola is a leather piece added to the front of a worn sole, and doppia suola a sole of two layers.^[8][2][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 521
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3676
11. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 522