panico Italian · revision 39303

+ {{homograph|1|millet}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1225, Garzo|origins=la panicum}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /paˈni.ko/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''panico''' ''m'' (plural (rare) panichi)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The millet is [[inh|la|panicum|alt=pānīcum|t=Italian millet]], a derivative of [[m|la|pānus|t=ear of millet]], named, Nocentini thinks, for its spindle shape.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Wiktionary) DELI thinks that noun may be the same as the word for a weaver's thread or bobbin, and Wiktionary also considers [[m|la|pānis|t=bread]] as the base.^(DELI 1999)^(Wiktionary)^(OLD 2012)

+

+ The Latin word is pan-Romance, though in many places replaced by derivatives such as [[m|la|panicium]].^(DEI|2747) It survives as [[fr|panic]] and [[ro|părinc]], and was borrowed into [[goh|pfenih]], the source of [[de|Fench]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(REW 1935)^(Körting 1907)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The first record is in Garzo, about 1225, in a proverb comparing flatterers of a friend to sparrows at the millet (''come passere al panico'').^(DELI 1999)^(GDLI|12, 481) Nocentini dates the word to 1240.^(Nocentini 2010) The Latin of Lombard-period documents has ''panicum'' in 809 and 986.^(DEI|2747)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Tuscan documents of the 13th and 14th centuries record fields sown with millet and payments in it.^(GDLI|12, 481) It was long food for people as well as for birds, and the place name Panicale, recorded in 1029, probably first meant a millet field.^(Prati 1951|734) Followed by an adjective or a noun (''panico bastardo'', ''panico di Spagna'') the name is given to related grasses.^(DEI|2747)^(GRADIT 2003)

+

+ ''Panicato'' (before 1597, Soderini) describes beef or pork whose muscles seem full of millet grains because of cysticerci, and ''panicatura'' (1922) the disease.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 809 – ''Panicum'' appears in a Medieval Latin document of the Lombard period.^(DEI|2747)

+ * c. 1225 – Garzo uses ''panico'' for millet.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1597 – Soderini uses ''panicato'' of diseased meat.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1922 – ''Panicatura'' appears in the Zingarelli dictionary.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(botany)'' [[m|en|foxtail millet]] (''Setaria italica''), an annual grass like millet with a compact panicle.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # Its seed, used as [[m|en|birdseed]]: ''Ogni mattina do il panico al canarino.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # A name of various grasses of the genus ''Panicum''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[panicato]]

+ * [[panicatura]]

+ * [[panicale]]

+ * [[panicastrella]]

+

+ {{homograph|2|panic}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1565, Baccio Baldini|origins=grc Πάν}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈpa.ni.ko/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''panico''' ''m'' (plural panici)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Panic is [[bor|fr|panique]], recorded as an adjective in the 15th century and as a noun in 1836, from [[grc|πανικός|tr=panikós|t=of Pan]], the adjective of [[m|grc|Πάν|tr=Pán]], the god of wild nature.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(Wiktionary) The Greek phrase was [[m|grc|πανικὸν δεῖμα|tr=panikòn deîma|t=panic fear]]: in myth Pan frightened travellers in lonely places with his inhuman cries.^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|2747) GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and the GDLI treat it as a learned word from [[la|panicus]], the Latin form of the Greek adjective.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(GDLI|12, 480) The same French word gave [[es|pánico]].^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The first record is in Baccio Baldini in 1565, as an adjective in ''timor panico'', a sudden fear without apparent cause.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The noun took longer: Rigutini and Fanfani in 1875 called ''il panico entrò nell'esercito'' a strange usage, and purists censured it.^(DELI 1999) Today it is the usual word for sudden uncontrollable fear, individual or collective, and in psychology an ''attacco di panico'' is a panic attack.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ D'Annunzio (1894) gave the adjective a new sense, “of nature as a direct manifestation of the divine”, in phrases such as ''ora panica'';^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) Panzini noted in 1935 that it was among the adjectives most used by the aesthetes of the period, and ''panismo'' (1915–1917) named that feeling.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) In young people's slang ''da panico'' means “amazing”.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1565 – Baccio Baldini uses ''pànico'' as an adjective.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1875 – Rigutini and Fanfani note the use as a noun.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1894 – D'Annunzio uses ''panico'' of nature as divine.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1917 – Giovanni Boine uses ''panismo''.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|panic]], a sudden fear that overwhelms reason and leads to flight or rash acts: ''Quando è mancata la luce, molti sono stati presi dal panico.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # Collective alarm spread by frightening news.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''(psychology)'' An acute attack of anxiety, as in ''attacco di panico''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # ''(mythology)'' Of the god Pan, as in ''timor panico''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''(literary)'' Of nature felt as a living, divine force: ''poesia panica''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[panismo]]

+ * [[antipanico]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pane]]

+ * [[la|panicum]]

+ * [[fr|panique]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The stress differs: ''pànico'' “panic” but ''panìco'' “millet”.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Wiktionary) The plural of the millet is ''panichi'', rarely ''panici''.^(GDLI|12, 481)^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}