verga

Forms

verga f (plural verghe)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian vergha and Old Italian virga.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin virga (“shoot, twig, rod”), which already had all the senses recorded in early Italian, including “penis”.^[3][4][5][1] Battisti and Alessio treat the anatomical sense separately, as a calque, made in Late Latin, of Ancient Greek ῥάβδος (rhábdos, “rod”) recorded in glosses of the 6th century.^[6]

The same word is French verge, Occitan verga, Catalan verga, Spanish verga, Portuguese verga, Sardinian birga and Romanian vargă.^[4][7]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[3][8][9] It is usually traced to Proto-Italic *wizgā, a flexible rod, and de Vaan finds only the Germanic words for a wisp close enough to support it: Old Norse visk and Old High German wisc.^[8][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma (1252–58).^[2] DELI's earliest dated sense is “sceptre or other symbol of power”, in Dante (1304–08).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for a young shoot and, figuratively, for an offspring, for a twig and a stem, a rod or staff, an arrow, a bar of cast metal, a column of smoke, the penis, and a coloured stripe in striped cloth.^[2] DELI dates “rod, switch” before 1347, “twig” and “penis” about 1350 in the Italian translation of Crescenzi, and the diviner's rod to Dante, by a common reading of Inferno XX.^[3] Petrarch writes ch'i' fuggo lor come fanciul la verga “that I flee them as a child flees the rod”.^[10]

The bar of iron is recorded before 1571 in Cellini, and the ingot of precious metal in 1805.^[3] The diminutive vergella, a thin metal rod, goes back to an unattested diminutive of the Latin word through northern verzela.^[3] The verb vergare “to write by hand” is in Dante (1313–19).^[3]

Timeline

• 1252–1258 – The word appears in the Storie de Troia e de Roma.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for the diviner's rod.^[3]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for a sceptre.^[3]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses vergare “to write”.^[3]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses it for a rod or switch.^[3]
• c. 1350 – The senses “twig” and “penis” appear in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[3]
• Before 1571 – Benvenuto Cellini uses it for a bar of iron.^[3]
• 1805 – D'Alberti records it for an ingot of precious metal.^[3]
• 1870 – Verzella, an iron rod used in ironworks, is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long, thin, often flexible rod or switch: il pastore spingeva le capre con una verga di nocciolo.^[5][11][12]
2. (literary) A thin branch, a twig.^[5][13][14]
3. (literary) A sceptre or staff as a symbol of power.^[5][11][12]
4. A bar of metal; an ingot: oro in verghe.^[5][11][12]
5. A rod-shaped part of an instrument, such as the rod of a pendulum;^[5][11] (weaving) each of the two lease rods of a loom.^[5][11]
6. (uncommon) A rail of a railway or tramway.^[5][11]
7. (euphemistic) The penis.^{[5][11][12][1]}
8. (archaic) An arrow, a dart.^[5][2]

Word family

• vergare
• vergata
• vergato
• vergatura
• vergatina
• vergatino
• vergella
• verghetta
• vergheggiare

Related words

• Latin virga
• French verge

Usage notes

Tremare a verga a verga is to shake all over, from cold, fear or fever.^[13][14] Verga d'oro is the goldenrod and also a small golden butterfly.^[13] A nautical verga “yard”, recorded in 1805, comes from French vergue, a northern form of verge.^[6][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4020
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)