tirchio

Forms

tirchio (feminine tirchia, masculine plural tirchi, feminine plural tirchie)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3] DELI accepts, for want of a better proposal, the view that it is a blend, from Italian pirchio (“miser; boor”) + tirato (“stingy”).^[4][5][2][6] The idea was put forward by Maccarrone in 1935 and taken up by the etymological dictionaries.^[4][7][8] DELI points out that the first of these words is itself of unknown origin and recorded much later, in 1829.^[4]

H. Meier suggested, with caution, that the Italian word and Spanish terco, of obscure origin, are back-formations from a reconstructed Vulgar Latin *tric(c)ulāre, from Latin tricārī (“to make difficulties”).^[4] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli derive it instead from ticchio (“piece of wood, stick”), through a sense “coarse, mean”, with ⟨-cc-⟩ dissimilated to ⟨-rc-⟩ as in tarchiato.^[9][10] Nocentini traces that word to a reconstructed *tītulus, from Latin titulus (“placard; sign”), which took the concrete sense “splinter, piece of wood”.^[9] The regular outcome of the short vowel is Old Italian terchio (“boorish”), used by Sacchetti.^[9] He compares the similar development of taccagno and tanghero.^[9] Wiktionary also mentions Ancient Greek θηριακός (thēriakós) as a possible source.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Grazzini, before 1584, as an adjective in an insult: villan tirchio, “stingy boor”.^[4][11][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “miserly” has stayed the same since Grazzini, and the word is colloquial.^[4][6] Tommaseo records it as an adjective and as a noun (È un tirchio, è una gran tirchia), and refers to the form terchio.^[12] It has also been used figuratively for something unproductive or barren, as when Baldini writes that even the imagination becomes tirchia in bad luck.^[11]

The derived tirchieria “stinginess” appears in Casotti in 1732–1734.^[4][5] Tirchione, an augmentative used as a noun, is recorded in 1879.^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1584 – Grazzini writes villan tirchio.^[4][11]
• 1732 – Casotti uses tirchieria.^[5]
• 1829 – Pirchio, the proposed source, is first recorded.^[4]
• 1879 – Tirchione is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (colloquial) stingy, mean, reluctant to spend money: Non fare il tirchio e offri tu il caffè.^{[2][10][6][13]}

Noun

1. (colloquial) A miser, a stingy person.^[2][13][14]

Word family

• tirchieria
• tirchiamente
• tirchione

Related words

• taccagno
• spilorcio

Usage notes

Synonyms are avaro, spilorcio and taccagno.^[6][3] The diminutive tirchietto and the augmentative tirchione are used, the latter only as a noun.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3800
6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 995
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
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. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli