Etymologically
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troia

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Pronunciation

Forms

troia f (plural troie)[1] Old forms include Old Italian troja, Old Italian troya and Old Italian trogia.[2] Lucca and the Montale area have Italian troglia.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Medieval Latin troia (“sow”), first recorded in the 8th-century Kassel Glosses, where it translates the Germanic word for “sow”.[5][6] The word is found in Italian and Gallo-Romance: French truie, Occitan trueia and Catalan truja.[6][4][3] Its origin is disputed.[5][6]

The traditional explanation, still held by the FEW and repeated by DELI, Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli, takes it from the name of the city of Latin Trōia (“Troy”): Macrobius mentions a “Trojan pig”, a pig roasted and stuffed with other animals as the Trojan horse was stuffed with warriors, and this would have become “pig of Troy” and then simply “Troy”.[5][7][8][6] Körting saw no reason to doubt it.[9] Rohlfs objected that Macrobius' phrase is an isolated joke, not the name of a real dish, and took the word for a popular expressive formation that reached the Italian dialects from France.[5][10] Treccani suggests that it imitates the grunt of the pig.[11][1]

Nocentini proposes Vulgar Latin *torca (“nut of a screw, a winding”), from torqueō (“to twist, to turn”), with the /r/ moved after the first consonant and the word coming through Gallo-Romance; the metaphor would be the reverse of the one that made French écrou (“nut of a screw”) out of Latin scrōfa (“breeding sow”).[6][12] He rejects both the Trojan dish and Coromines' derivation from a Gaulish word for “boar” akin to Old Irish torc.[6] Its distribution, he notes, centres on France: in Italy it is western and northern, and reached Sicily with the Gallo-Italic settlers.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Bono Giamboni's translation of Orosius, before 1292, in the sense “sow, female pig”, especially one kept for breeding.[2] DELI's first record is Crescenzi's agricultural treatise in its Italian translation of about 1350.[5]

Semantic evolution

As an insult for a woman the word appears in Franco Sacchetti before 1400.[5][3] The TLIO already lists both senses, the animal and the term of abuse.[2] A Sienese butchers' statute forbids killing a troia in the city or within two miles of it.[10]

In modern Italian the animal sense is popular and coarser than the synonym scrofa, and is used mainly of the breeding sow.[12][7] The vulgar sense, “whore”, is now the usual one, and GRADIT adds a further figurative use for anyone ready to sell themselves for advantage.[13][14] The derivative troiaio “pigsty”, also a filthy place, is recorded from 1891.[5][6]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Medieval Latin troia “sow” is recorded in the Kassel Glosses.[5][6]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses troia in his translation of Orosius.[2]
  • About 1350 – The word appears in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.[5]
  • Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses it as an insult for a woman.[5]
  • 1891 – Troiaio is recorded in the sense “filthy place”.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (popular) sow, a female pig, especially one kept for breeding.[13][12][7]
  2. (vulgar, figurative) whore, slut; used as an insult.[13][12][7][1]
  3. (vulgar, figurative) A person ready to sell themselves for gain.[13][14]

Word family

  • troiaio
  • troiata
  • troietta
  • troiona
  • troione
  • troiume
  • scrofa
  • French truie

Usage notes

A separate troia was a siege engine for hurling stones, recorded in Sercambi in the early 15th century; it comes from Old French truie, “sow” and also a war machine.[3][10] DEI also lists a dialect troia for a wooden tool that stirs the bottom of a press, named after the rooting pig.[3] The interjection porca troia is a common oath.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3912
  4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  11. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  13. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli