trinchetto

Forms

trinchetto m (plural trinchetti)^[1] Old forms include tranchetto and trinchéto^[2] and tringuetto (1602, Bartolomeo Crescenzio).^[3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[4][5][6] For DELI, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli, following Vidos and before him Bugge (1876), it is from Vulgar Latin *trīnicus (“threefold”), from Latin trīnus (“three each”), with the diminutive suffix -etto.^{[7][8][9][10]} The name would refer to the triangular shape of the sail: DELI notes that the sense “sail” is older than “mast”, which answers Gamillscheg's objection that the explanation is unconvincing.^[7][2] Nocentini sees the mast sense as a transfer through the phrase albero di trinchetto.^[8]

Earlier scholars started from Latin triquetrus (“triangular”), explaining the ⟨n⟩ by the influence of trinca;^[11][12] Meyer-Lübke thought the word might still belong with trīnus.^[11][12] Zingarelli instead proposes Old French triquet, a diminutive of trique (“stick”) of Dutch origin, crossed with trinca.^[13]

The word spread to all the Romance languages, beside a variant without the nasal.^[7] Meyer-Lübke has French trinquet, Occitan trinquet and Catalan trinquet borrowed from Italian, and Spanish trinquete from these;^[12][3] DEI adds French trinquette, the foresail, and Neapolitan tringhetto.^[12][3] The French word is dated 1477–1481 for the sail and 1525 for the mast, and the French dictionaries take it from Italian around 1500.^[14] The English word trinket (16th century) came through French according to the OED.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Luigi Pulci's Morgante (before 1484), which has alber del trinchetto, the mast of the foresail.^[7][4] Nocentini dates the word to 1459 and Zingarelli to 1481.^[8][13] The Medieval Latin of Genoa has arbor trincheti in 1496.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the early 16th century trinchetto was the foresail, in Amerigo Vespucci, Ariosto and Ramusio.^[7] Florio (1598) and Serdonati (before 1602) also give the sail sense, which Tommaseo still defines as a small square sail carried by the mast of the same name.^[7][15] The sense “foremast” on its own is first recorded by D'Alberti in 1805, who also has trinchetta and trinchettina for sails.^[7][3]

In modern Italian it is the foremast of a ship with two or more masts, made up of the lower mast, the topmast and the topgallant; by extension the word also names the lowest yard on that mast and the square sail set on it.^[5][4][13] German borrowed it as tringket (1479) for both the mast and the sail.^[14]

Timeline

• 1477–1481 – French trinquet is recorded for a sail.^[14]
• 1479 – German tringket is recorded.^[14]
• Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci has alber del trinchetto in the Morgante.^[7]
• 1496 – Arbor trincheti appears in the Medieval Latin of Genoa.^[7]
• Before 1522 – The sense “small square sail on the foremast” is recorded.^[14]
• 1598 – John Florio gives the word for the sail.^[7]
• 1805 – D'Alberti records trinchetto as the mast.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) The foremast: on sailing ships with two or more masts, the first mast from the bow.^{[4][9][10][5]}
2. (nautical) The lowest yard of the foremast: pennone di trinchetto.^{[4][10][13][6]}
3. (nautical) The foresail, the square sail on that yard: vela di trinchetto.^{[4][10][13][6]}

Word family

• trinchetta
• trinchettina

Related words

• trinca
• Latin trīnus
• French trinquet

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 353
3. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3901
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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
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 Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET