tiglio

Forms

tiglio m (plural tigli)^[1] Old Italian also had the feminine tiglia and the forms tiglo and tilio.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tilium, a masculine form beside classical Latin tilia (“lime tree”).^[5][6][1][3] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance feminine continued nearly everywhere and a masculine found in Romanian and a central area that includes Italian, French, Occitan and Catalan.^[7] The word is pan-Romance: Old French til, Occitan telh, Catalan tell, Spanish tilo, Portuguese til and Romanian tei.^[6] French tilleul comes from the diminutive *tiliolus.^[6][8]

In Latin the word meant also the bark and its fibres, which explains tiglioso “fibrous”, from a Latin *tiliosus, and the use of the Italian word for the fibres of hemp and flax.^[6][5] The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^{[5][6][9][10]} De Vaan finds only one close cognate, Ancient Greek πτελέα (pteléa, “elm”), and suggests that both are loans from a third language, or that Latin took the Greek word as *telia and changed its meaning.^[11] Wiktionary likewise thinks of a Mediterranean substrate word, found also in Old Armenian թեղի (tʻełi).^[1] DEI suggested an adaptation of the Greek word, perhaps through Etruscan.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1289, for the tree.^[3] DELI dates the sense “tree” and the adjective tiglioso to the Italian Crescenzi, about 1350.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The wood of the tree was valued by carvers: Vasari wrote in 1550 that the best of all the woods used for sculpture is lime (il migliore … tra tutti i legni, che si adoperano alla scultura, è il tiglio).^[5] The sense “fibre” of a plant appears in the 15th-century carnival songs, and Grazzini, before 1584, used it for the hard threads of meat and fruit.^[5] Tiglioso was said of meat from 1612, in Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.^[5]

In Tuscany the word also names the thin reddish skin of the chestnut, and older Tuscan had tiglia for cooked chestnuts and, at Lucca, for combed hemp.^[13][14][2] The family name tigliacee entered Italian in 1840.^[5] The flowers are dried for a mildly sedative infusion, also called tiglio.^[15][16] The tree's scent is a theme of poetry, as in Carducci's I molli aliti de i tigli (“the soft breaths of the limes”).^[4]

Timeline

• 1289 – A Florentine document records the word.^[3]
• c. 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses tiglio for the tree and tiglioso for plants.^[5]
• 15th century – The carnival songs use it for a plant's fibre.^[5]
• 1550 – Vasari praises lime wood for sculpture.^[5]
• Before 1584 – Grazzini uses it for the hard threads of meat and fruit.^[5]
• 1612 – Buonarroti the Younger applies tiglioso to meat.^[5]
• 1840 – Tigliacee is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The linden or lime tree, with heart-shaped toothed leaves and very fragrant yellowish flowers: Sotto i tigli del parco l'aria profumava di fiori.^[17][13][16]
2. An infusion of the dried flowers, a mild sedative.^[15][16][14]
3. The wood of the tree, pale, soft and easy to carve, used for pencils and matches.^[17][13][16]
4. (botany, capitalised) The genus Tilia of the family Tiliaceae.^[17][13]
5. By extension, the fibre of some woody or herbaceous plants, such as hemp and flax.^[17][13][18]
6. The hard fibres found in some fruit and in meat.^[17][16][15]
7. (Tuscan) The thin reddish skin of the chestnut, under the shell.^[17][13][14]

Word family

• tiglioso
• tigliacea
• tigliata

Related words

• Latin tilia
• French tilleul

Usage notes

Canepari's DiPI gives the pronunciation /ˈtiʎʎo/.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3788
13. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
19. ^ Canepari, Luciano, DiPI: Dizionario di pronuncia italiana, online ed., dipionline.it