bolgia

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian bolgia.

Noun

bolgia (plural bolgias)

1. a division of the eighth circle of Hell, Malebolge, in Dante's Divine Comedy

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Italian

Etymology

Probably borrowed from Old French bolge, bouge, from Late Latin bulga, or less likely directly from a Latin adjectival form bulgea.

Noun

bolgia f (plural bolge)

1. a mob or crowd (of people in a confined space)
2. bedlam
3. a bag, a pouch, especially one which opens longways
4. a ditch, hole in the ground
   • 1308–1321, Dante Alighieri, Commedìa, 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."

     2000, The Inferno, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander:

     "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."

Anagrams

• baglio