pistola Italian · revision 37808

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1574, Giacomo Correr|origins=cs píšťala}}

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+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /pisˈtɔ.la/^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Forms==

+ '''pistola''' ''f'' (plural pistole)^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|fr|pistole|t=small arquebus]], recorded in 1544, from [[de|Pistole]], which was taken from [[cs|píšťala|t=pipe, whistle]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003) The German word entered from Czech during the Hussite Wars of 1419–1439, around 1429 according to DEI, and princes from Germany and their armies brought it to France in the 16th-century wars of religion.^(DELI 1999)^(DEI|2953) The Czech word first meant a whistle or pipe, from a word for “whistle”, and so named a short tube;^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|2953) Nocentini and DEI give it in the older form [[m|cs|pišťal]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|2953) [[en|pistol]] (1570) has the same origin.^(DEI|2953)

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+ The older explanation from the name of the Tuscan town of Pistoia, where small daggers were made, is a folk etymology.^(GDLI|13, 573)^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ DELI's first record is in the report of the Venetian ambassador Giacomo Correr in 1574.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003) At first the ''pistola'' was a short gun that German horsemen carried on a shoulder strap; it grew smaller until two could be carried in holsters at either side of the saddle.^(DELI 1999)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The diminutive ''pistoletto'' (1605) at first named a cavalry pistol that was simply shorter than the ordinary ones of the time;^(DELI 1999) ''pistolettata'' “pistol shot” is recorded in 1611.^(DELI 1999) ''Pistolero'' “gunman” came from Spanish in 1935, where it first meant an anarchist gunman.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)

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+ The name passed to tools shaped like a pistol or used like one, such as the ''pistola a spruzzo'' (spray gun), and in the 19th century to Volta's electric pistol.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)^(DEI|2953) In popular and northern speech ''pistola'' is also a masculine noun for a foolish, gullible person, and a word for the penis.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

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+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1544 – French ''pistole'' is first recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1574 – Giacomo Correr uses ''pistola''.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)

+ * 1605 – ''pistoletto'' is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1611 – Lodovico Melzo uses ''pistolettata''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1935 – ''pistolero'' is recorded.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|pistol]], a short firearm held in one hand: ''Il rapinatore ha gettato la pistola nel fiume.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # A tool shaped like a pistol or working like one: ''pistola a spruzzo'' “spray gun”, ''pistola sparachiodi'' “nail gun”.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(vulgar)'' The [[m|en|penis]].^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(masculine, northern, colloquial)'' A fool, a gullible person.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[pistoletto]]

+ * [[pistolettata]]

+ * [[pistolero]]

+ * [[pistolino]]

+ * [[pistolone]]

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|pistol]]

+ * [[fr|pistolet]]

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+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Pistola fumante'' “smoking gun”, conclusive proof of a crime, is a calque of the English phrase.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010) Two rarer words share the spelling: ''pistola'' “pistole”, the name of the Spanish gold coins, a 17th-century borrowing of French ''pistole'', perhaps the same word, and the obsolete ''pìstola'', stressed on the first syllable, a shortening of ''epistola'' “letter” used by Dante and Villani.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(GDLI|13, 572)

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}