pigacia

Latin

William Rufus in pigaches in a 1915 illustration of the life of St Anselm

Alternative forms

• pigatia

Etymology

From French pigache (“kind of hoe, kind of hoofprint, kind of shoe”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /piˈɡa.ki.a/, [pɪˈɡäkiä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /piˈɡa.t͡ʃi.a/, [piˈɡäːt͡ʃiä]

Noun

pigacia f (genitive pigaciae); first declension

1. (Medieval Latin, historical) pigache, an 11th–13th century style of footwear with elongated and pointed toes.
   • c. 1140, Orderic Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica, Book VIII, Ch. 10:

     Ipse nimirum quia pedes habebat deformes, instituit sibi fieri longos et in summitate acutissimos subtolares ita ut operiret pedes, et eorum celaret tubera quae vulgo vocantur uniones... Unde sutores in calciamentis quasi caudas scorpionum quas vulgo pigacias appellant faciunt...

     As one might expect since he had deformed feet, [[[w:Fulk le Rechin|Fulk the Rude]]] ordered shoes made for himself that were long and pointy at the end to hide his feet and conceal the swollen growths that are called bunions in the common tongue... whence shoemakers made scorpions' tails as it were in their footwear, which are called pigaches in the common tongue...

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	pigacia	pigaciae
genitive	pigaciae	pigaciārum
dative	pigaciae	pigaciīs
accusative	pigaciam	pigaciās
ablative	pigaciā	pigaciīs
vocative	pigacia	pigaciae