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bolgia - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Unadapted borrowing from Italian bolgia (“ditch, trench”), from Old French bolge, bouge, from Late Latin bulga (“wallet, purse”), from Gaulish bolgā, from Proto-Celtic *bolgos (“sack, bag”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”). Doublet of budge and bulge.

bolgia (plural bolgias or bolge)

  1. Any of the divisions of the eighth circle of Hell, Malebolge, in Dante's Divine Comedy.

Probably borrowed from Old French bolge, bouge, from Late Latin bulga (“wallet, purse”) (or less likely directly from an adjectival form bulgea), from Gaulish bolgā, from Proto-Celtic *bolgos (“sack, bag”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”).

bolgia f (plural bolge)

  1. (archaic) a bag, a pouch, especially one which opens longways
    Hypernyms: borsa f, bisaccia f
  2. (archaic) a ditch, a trench, a hole in the ground
    Synonyms: fossa f, fosso m, fossato m
  3. a bolgia (division in Dante's Inferno)
    • 1308–1321, Dante Alighieri (translated by Robert and Jean Hollander, 2000), Commedìa (The Inferno), canto 23, lines 31–33:

      S'elli è che sì la destra costa giaccia,
      che noi possiam ne l'altra bolgia scendere,
      noi fuggirem l'imaginata caccia.

      If the slope there to the right allows us
      to make our way into the other ditch,
      we shall escape the chase we both envision.
  4. (figuratively) a mob or crowd of people in a confined space; a bedlam
    Synonyms: babele f, babilonia f, inferno m, (colloquial) bordello m, (colloquial) casino m, bailamme m, marasma m