From: tgpedersen
Message: 46164
Date: 2006-09-20
>DEO rage I
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel J. Milton" <dmilt1896@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Is there an online Italian dictionary with etymologic information?
> > I can't find one.
>
> The etymology of It. ragazzo is given in the following link to the
> online editon of O. Pianigiani's classical _Vocabolario etimologico
> della lingua italiana_ (1st edn. Firenze 1907):
>
> http://www.etimo.it/?term=ragazzo
>
> I can tentatively summarize Pianigiani's etymological hypotheses for
> those who cannot read Italian:
>
> 1) the word (from Barbarous Latin <ragàzium>) may be connected with
> <ràga> (= Greek <ràke>) 'tattered garment' -- hence the possible
> original meaning 'ragamuffin' (originally referred to enslaved or
> servant boys);
>
> 2) the word is a cognate of English <rag> 'a scrap, fragment' (with
> this stressing the fact that a boy is a 'little' man);
>
> 3) the word is a compound of the Gallo-Celtic terms <rao> 'little
> and <gwas> 'a servant';
>
> 4) finally, the hypothesis favoured by Pianigiani is that the word
> <ragazzo> is connected with the High Italian dialectal verb
> <ragar> 'to shear', because the servile classes of the Middle Ages
> had their hair shorn; the meaning 'a servant' would be in this case
> the primary one, whereas the meaning 'a (servant) boy' would be a
> secondary one.
>