vergato

Forms

vergato (feminine vergata, masculine plural vergati, feminine plural vergate)^[1] Old Italian forms include vergado, verghato and virgato.^[2] The form ⟨vergado⟩ is recorded at Bologna in 1245 and 1264.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin virgātus (“striped”), from virga (“rod; stripe”).^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} The TLIO files it under the verb vergare, formed in Italian from verga, but it also cites DELI's view that the adjective continues the Latin word while the verb and its derivatives are recent Italian formations.^[2][10] The senses “beaten with a rod” and “written by hand” belong to the participle of the verb.^{[11][12][13][14]}

The Latin adjective survives in Romanian vărgat, Old French vergié and Old Occitan vergat.^[15][3]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain; de Vaan compares Old Norse visk (“wisp”) and Old High German wisc (“wisp”).^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a document from Savona of 1178–1182, where it describes cloth woven with stripes, usually of different colours.^[2] Florentine accounts of the 13th century list panni vergati “striped cloths”.^[12][4][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word described striped cloth and clothes, the striped coat of an animal, the grain of wood, anything lined or of many colours, and figuratively something uneven or ill-matched; as a noun it meant striped cloth or a striped garment.^[2] In the Novellino a man dressed di vergato is taken for a fool, and Boccaccio mocks women who think the most striped and gaudy clothes earn them the most respect.^[13][7] A church rule suspended clerics who wore striped clothes in public without cause.^[13] Poliziano describes tigers con pelle vergata.^[7][3]

As the participle of vergare the word came to mean “written”, as in le vergate carte (“the written pages”) of 17th-century poets.^[13] The paper sense carta vergata, paper that shows fine parallel lines against the light, dates from 1939–1940.^[4][5][6]

Timeline

• 1178–1182 – Vergato is recorded in a Savona document.^[2]
• 1245 – Old Bolognese vergado is recorded.^[3]
• 13th century – Florentine documents list panni vergati.^[4][3]
• 14th century – Boccaccio uses it of striped clothes.^[3]
• 15th century – Poliziano uses it of a tiger's skin.^[3]
• 1939–1940 – Carta vergata is recorded in Palazzi's dictionary.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. striped, marked with lines or bands of another colour, especially of cloth: una camicia vergata di azzurro.^{[10][6][17][18]}
2. (papermaking) In carta vergata: laid paper, which shows fine parallel lines against the light.^{[6][14][7][11]}
3. (literary) Written by hand: le vergate carte.^[11][13][14]
4. Beaten with a rod.^[11][12]

Noun

1. (papermaking) The frame of close parallel brass wires used to make laid paper by hand, or a similar part of a paper machine.^[10][6][18]
2. (archaic) Striped cloth, the same as vergatino or rigatino.^{[6][14][18][13]}

Word family

• vergatino

Related words

• verga
• vergare
• Latin virgatus

References

1. ^ a b 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4021
4. ^ a b c d e 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b c d e f Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
16. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse