tela

Forms

tela f (plural tele)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tēla (“cloth on a loom, web”), a word of the same stem as texō (“to weave”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun goes back to an older Proto-Italic *tekslā, with the cluster of the verb's stem simplified before the ending.^[3][1][5] Latin itself paired noun and verb in a common phrase meaning “to weave a cloth”.^[2]

The word is panromance: French toile, Occitan tela, Catalan tela, Spanish tela, Portuguese teia, Sardinian tela and Romanian teară.^[3][6] Meyer-Lübke adds Friulian tele and outcomes with other senses, such as Catalan “bird net” and Spanish “cataract of the eye”.^[6]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *tekse-, from Proto-Indo-European *teḱs- (“to fashion”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini, DEI and Devoto–Oli date the word to the 13th century.^[3][8][9] DELI's first dated record of the sense “cloth woven of linen, cotton or other fibre” is in Dante (1300–1313), but a serventese of the end of the 13th century already uses the figurative phrase ordirà la tela “will warp the web”, that is, will lay a plot.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the woven cloth the word passed to things made of it or shaped like it.^[2][8] A painting on canvas is a tela from the 17th century (Chiabrera, before 1638, Baldinucci in DEI), and the theatre curtain from the early 19th century.^[2][8] In sailors' language tela was the canvas of the sails, recorded in 1602, and in the 20th century it became the name of a ply of a tyre.^[8][2]

The figurative “plot, intrigue” (ordire una tela, to hatch a scheme) and the literary image of the thread of life spun by the Fates, used by Petrarch, rest on the same picture of weaving.^[2][4] The Homeric story of Penelope, who unpicked by night the cloth she wove by day, made la tela di Penelope proverbial for a task that never ends.^[2][9]

The loom, telaio, goes back to Vulgar Latin *telarium, matched by the plural telaria in Isidore of Seville; it is recorded in Italian before 1342 (Cavalca).^[2][3] Telo, a length of cloth as it comes off the loom, appears in Boccaccio (1348–1353).^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – First record of tela.^[3][8][9]
• Late 13th century – A serventese uses the figurative phrase ordire la tela “to lay a plot”.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses tela for woven cloth.^[2][4]
• Before 1342 – Telaio “loom” is recorded in Cavalca.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses telo.^[2]
• 1602 – Tela is used for the canvas of sails.^[8]
• Before 1638 – Chiabrera uses tela for a painting on canvas.^[2]
• 1839 – Tramater records tela as the theatre curtain.^[2]
• 1879 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the figurative sense “plot, scheme”, and the Tuscan slang fare tela “to make off” is dated to this year.^[2][4]
• 1970 – Zingarelli records tela as a ply of a tyre.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. plain weave: the basic weave of textiles, in which each warp thread passes alternately over and under the threads of the weft, giving an even, compact cloth with no wrong side.^[4][9][10]
2. cloth woven in this way, especially of linen or cotton: Ha comprato tre metri di tela per le tende della cucina.^[4][9][11]
3. canvas stretched on a frame for painting; by extension, a painting on canvas: Al museo erano esposte due tele di Tiziano.^[4][10][12]
4. (theatre) The curtain, chiefly in cala la tela “the curtain falls”, also said figuratively of something that is over.^[4][12][11]
5. (nautical) The sails of a vessel taken together.^[4][10]
6. (figurative) A plot or intrigue; also the plot of a story or poem: ordire una tela.^[4][10][12]
7. (literary) The span of a life, pictured as the thread spun by the Fates.^[4]
8. A ply of a tyre, a layer of cords embedded in rubber: andare sulle tele, to drive on tyres worn to the ply.^[4][12]

Word family

• telaio
• telo
• telone
• teletta
• teleria
• telato
• intelaiare
• intelaiatura
• rintelaiare
• telatura

Related words

• tessere
• ragnatela
• Latin tēla
• French toile

Usage notes

Set phrases include tela cerata (oilcloth), tela di ragno (spider's web, also ragnatela), la tela di Penelope (an endless task) and restare in braghe di tela (to be left penniless).^[12][13][11]

GRADIT and the Treccani dictionary list a separate tela used only in the colloquial phrase fare tela, “to slip away, make off”, recorded from 1879;^[4][14][9] Tuscan and central Italian, it is perhaps the same word in the sense “sail”.^[4][14][9] DEI places it in Florentine slang and compares Montale telà(re) “to vanish quickly”;^[8][6] Meyer-Lübke lists Tuscan telare and far tela among the outcomes of Latin tela.^[8][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 440
6. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)