loico

Italian

FWOTD – 13 January 2023

Etymology

From Latin logicus. Doublet of logico.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɔj.ko/
• Rhymes: -ɔjko
• Hyphenation: lòi‧co

Noun

loico m (plural loici, feminine loica)

1. (archaic) intelligent, logical person; sharp thinker
   • mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto XXVII”, in Inferno [Hell]‎^[1], lines 121–123; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate]‎^[2], 2^nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:

     Oh me dolente! come mi riscossi
     quando mi prese dicendomi: "Forse
     tu non pensavi ch’io löico fossi!".

     O miserable me! how I did shudder
     when he seized me, saying: 'Perhaps
     you did not think that I was a reasoner!'

   • 1349–1353, Giovanni Boccaccio, “Giornata sesta – Novella nona”, in Decameron; republished as Aldo Francesco Massera, editor, Il Decameron‎^[3], Bari: Laterza, 1927:

     Guido […] de’ Cavalcanti […] fu un de’ miglior loici che avesse il mondo

     Guido Cavalcanti […] was one of the finest thinkers in the world

   • 1980, Umberto Eco, Il nome della rosa [The Name of the Rose] (I grandi tascabili), Milan: Bompiani, published 1984, page 103:

     "Il che dimostra che il riso è cosa assai vicina alla morte e alla corruzione del corpo," ribatté in un ringhio Jorge, e devo ammettere che si comportò da buon loico.

     "Which proves that laughter is something very close to the death and corruption of the body," replied Jorge with a snarl, and I must admit that he behaved like a good reasoner.

Further reading

• loico in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana