truppa

Forms

truppa f (plural truppe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French troupe, which had its military sense from 1477–1483.^[2][3][4][1] DELI and GRADIT trace the French word to Frankish *þorp (“village”), which in Gallo-Romance came to mean a cluster of people.^[2][4] It is cognate with German Dorf (“village”).^[4] Nocentini instead derives the French noun from troupeau (“flock, herd”), formed on trop, from the Frankish form he writes *þrop (“crowd of people”).^[3]

Latinised as Medieval Latin troppus (“flock”), the Germanic word first appears in the Lex Alamannorum of 717–719, or earlier if a document printed by Migne dates from 700.^[2][5] DEI has French ⟨troupe⟩ from the 13th century in the sense of a herd.^[6] The same Germanic word gave troppo.^[2][3][7]

According to Prati the early spellings ⟨tropa⟩ and ⟨troppa⟩ came from Spanish tropa.^[8] Migliorini saw Spanish and French influences meeting in the word.^[2] Diez had derived it from Latin turba (“crowd”), and Tommaseo reports the same idea.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is ⟨tropa⟩ in Giammaria Barbieri in 1568, cited by Viani, for any organised military force.^[2][4] DEI also has the word in the 16th century for a throng of people, in Popoleschi.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Florio has ⟨troppa⟩ in 1598, and the form truppa is recorded at Modena and Parma in 1640.^[2] In the 17th century it was a troop of horsemen larger than a company, and in the plural the soldiery.^[8][6] Popoleschi's truppa de' tuoi lavoratori shows the old sense of a crowd.^[10]

Purists always disliked the word.^[2] In 1831 Lissoni allowed it only for a multitude of soldiers or people, not for an army in general.^[2] The sense of the rank and file appears in 1877, when Fanfani and Arlìa cite a section of the War Ministry called the Direzione generale della truppa.^[2] The verbs intruppare (16th century) and attruppare (1669, from French attrouper) belong to the same family.^[3]

Timeline

• 1477–1483 – French troupe takes on its military sense.^[2]
• 1568 – Tropa in Giammaria Barbieri.^[2]
• 1598 – Troppa in Florio.^[2]
• 1611 – Truppe “soldiery” in Melzo.^[6]
• 1640 – The form truppa at Modena and Parma.^[2]
• 1669 – Attruppare is recorded.^[3]
• 1831 – Lissoni tries to restrict the word's use.^[2]
• 1877 – Truppa for the rank and file.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) An organised body of armed forces, often in the plural: troops.^{[4][11][12][13]}
2. (military) The rank and file: the privates and corporals of a unit, without the NCOs and officers: militari di truppa are enlisted men.^[4][11][13]
3. (figurative, often jocular) A large group of people, a crowd: Arrivò con una truppa di cugini.^[4][13][14]
4. (derogatory) A band of shady people.^[11][12]

Word family

• intruppare
• attruppare
• aviotruppa

Related words

• troppo

Usage notes

A truppe and in truppa mean “in droves, in a close group”.^[13][14][12]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3922
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1021
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana