lésca

Venetian

Etymology 1

Rebracketing formed by the agglutination of the elided article l' (“the”) to Latin esca (“bait; tinder, kindling”).

Noun

lésca f (plural lésche)

1. tinder, kindling

Etymology 2

Probably from a Germanic source and later influenced by the abovementioned meaning; compare Italian lisca (“fishbone”), French laîche (“sedge”) and German Liesch (“sedge”).

Noun

lésca f (plural lésche)

1. any of various marsh plants, such as the sedge or the bulrush, which were reaped, dried and then sold as tinder.

Further reading

• Boerio, Giuseppe (1867) “lésca”, in Dizionario del dialetto veneziano, 3rd edition, Venice: G. Cecchini, page 366