azza
Italian
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editLikely borrowed from Old French hache (“axe”), from Vulgar Latin *happia (“axe, hatchet”), borrowed from Frankish *happjā (“axe”), from Proto-Germanic *hā̆bjǭ or *hē̆bjǭ (name of some sort of tool).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editazza f (plural azze)
- poleaxe
- Hypernym: arma inastata
- 1516–1532, Ludovico Ariosto, “Canto 39”, in Orlando furioso, stanza 2; republished as Santorre Debenedetti, editor, Bari: Laterza, 1928:
- Rinaldo, che non ha simil pensiero,
in tutti i modi alla vittoria aspira:
mena de l’azza dispettoso e fiero- Rinaldo, without such worries, seeks victory through any means: he swings his poleaxe, haughty and proud
- 1619, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, “Atto terzo della prima giornata”, in La fiera[1], Scena terza; republished in La fiera, commedia di Michelagnolo Buonarruoti il Giovane, e La tancia, commedia rusticale del medesimo[2], Florence: Stamperia di S. A. R., 1726, page 23:
- Arme ’n aſte vi ſon, picche, corſeſche
E partigiane aſſai,
[…]
E mazze, e azze, e ſergentine, e dardi- [Arme 'n aste vi son: picche, corsesche
e partigiane assai,
[…]
e mazze, e azze, e sergentine, e dardi] - There are polearms: pikes, corseques, and lots of partisans; […] and maces, and poleaxes, and sergeant's pikes, and darts
- [Arme 'n aste vi son: picche, corsesche
- 1820–1824 [1776–1789], chapter 58, in Davide Bertolotti, transl., Storia della decadenza e rovina dell'Impero romano[3], volume 11, Milan: Nicolo Bettoni, translation of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon:
- i soldati ogni coraggio perdettero in veggendo partire Guglielmo Visconte di Melun, che i colpi vigorosi della sua azza da guerra avean fatto soprannomare il Carradore
- [original: The soldiers were discouraged by the flight of William, viscount of Melun, surnamed the Carpenter, from the weighty strokes of his axe]
- The soldiers lost all their bravery seeing William, viscount of Melun—the mighty strokes of whose battle poleaxe had him nicknamed "the Cartwright"—leaving
- 1872 [c. 1309], chapter XXXXV, in Giovanni Galvani, transl., La sesta crociata, ovvero l'istoria della santa vita di re Luigi IX di Francia [The Sixth Crusade, or The story of the saintly life of king Louis IX of France][4], Bologna: Gaetano Romagnoli, translation of Livre des saintes paroles et des bons faiz de nostre saint roy Looÿs by Jean de Joinville (in Old French), page 184:
- E colui che portava l’azza, gridava in suo linguaggio ad alta voce: Tornatevi addietro, fuggitevi dinanzi Colui che porta la morte dei Re entro sue mani.
- [E colui che portava l'azza gridava in suo linguaggio ad alta voce: "Tornatevi addietro, fuggitevi dinanzi colui che porta la morte dei re entro sue mani."]
- [original: Et crioit à haulte voix celui qui portoit celle hache en son langaige: Tournez vous arriere, fuiez vous de devant celui qui pourte la mort des Roys entre ses mains.]
- And the one carrying the poleaxe was yelling loudly in his language: "Go back! Flee before the one who brings the death of kings in his own hands!"
- 1907, Giovanni Pascoli, “La partenza del boscaiolo [The lumberjack's departure]”, in Canti di Castelvecchio [Songs of Castelvecchio][5], 4th edition, Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, section VII:
- Un’azza è quella con cui squadri
là, nel verno, il pino e il cerro;
con cui picchiavano i tuoi padri
sopra i grandi elmi di ferro.- A poleaxe is that with which, during the winter, you break the pine and the oak; with which your fathers struck upon the great iron helms.
References
edit- azza in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
- azza in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti, Olivetti Media Communication
Further reading
editazza on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia it
Categories:
- Italian terms borrowed from Old French
- Italian terms derived from Old French
- Italian terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- Italian terms derived from Frankish
- Italian terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Italian 2-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/attsa
- Rhymes:Italian/attsa/2 syllables
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian palindromes
- Italian feminine nouns
- Italian terms with quotations
- it:Polearms