For a long time we in the States have been told Migliavacca means "thousand cows". But that's not quite right. Maybe "miles of cows". I read an etymological excerpt that said it derived from "mangiare", hence "eater of cows", maybe "beefeater". What do you think?

Maurizio:

John, the Italian language is complicated a lot and no easy to understand today also! Think to the past time!!! In any way it comes (as the French) by 75% from Latin and 45% from Greek. The English only by 30/40% from Latin and for a small percentage from Greek (except in scientific field). I'm not a "professor" or expert in etymology, but at school (both "low" and "high", following the American identification) I studied Latin and Greek (spoken, written, the history and the classics) till 18th years of my age. Luckily I remember... a lot of my studies and now I hope to be able to explain in English... the basis of my thesis.

1. "Thousand cows" appears as an... incorrect translation! To understand you have to go back to the "Latin" (Roman) language:

"Milia" (in Italian of today, "Miglia") it's "Miles" (at plural) -

"Mille" it's "Thousand".

That is: "Miliavacca" > "Migliavacca" (= "miles - plural - [of] cow - singular", if you want the exact, etymological, translation. Vice versa, if you translate as "Thousand cows", in Italian will be "Millevacche"!

2. Nevertheless "Mille", "Milia" (or today "Miglia") and "Miles" have the same Latin root!

In fact it's a "measurement": "mille passus" (in Latin "vulgaris" - see after) or better "milia passuum" (at plural, in Latin Roman) means "1000 steps" [where 1 Latin Roman step = 5 feet], then "thousand steps" (at plural) = "1 mile" (at singular).

At this point you'll translate "thousand steps cow"... thinking to a good walker cow! But usually we think to a cow for the milk and to a draft horse or a beef for the agriculture.... to pull something.

Any way in the years "milia passuum" lost "passuum" becoming simply "milia" to indicate "a lot of miles" as an undefined concept (if you don't put a specific number before, e.g. 34 miles). Then, it results a mistake to translate "thousand cow" in place of "thousand(s) steps (= 1 mile or undefined miles) of cow"/ "cow for miles".

Another translation, using "milia" (or miglia) as measure, may be "cow [long] miles" thinking to a very big cow... as coming from "X-Files": in fact it will be a biological non sense! One more translation will be a... measure not given by "human steps", but by "cow steps": in this case a land measured by... "cow steps", even if it seems a new historical method of measurement!

3. A derivation from "mangiare" (to eat), my dear John, it's totally wrong! In fact, in this case, the reference is another, Italian, similar name, that is "Mangiavacchi" (where "vacca" [cow] - female singular - become "vacchi" - male... plural) = "eater [of] cow... (or, better, bulls or beefs).

4. Coming back to "miles of cow", to understand what it possibly means... not in English, but of course in the Italian language spoken by the peoples living across '900 / 1100 A.D, we need to "go back" through the time.

As already told you, the old original Latin (Roman, spoken by Julius Caesar and Co...) lost his "purity" progressively and more or less from '500 was named "Latin vulgaris" (Latin for the poor people). Just arriving around the years '900 was named "Italicus" (a middle way between the "Latin vulgaris" and the start of the "Italian of today"). But: a) the vocabulary was very "compact" (only the 30% of the number of words spoken "before"). b) the "concepts" was by the way represented, necessarily, in very simply manner and with really few words, leaving the "fantasy" to... complete the "full concept". Don't forget, John, that approaching the year "1K".... the fear of the end of the world was GREAT (it was the time were the "Religion" had the role to compress and obscure any wishes to grow). By this the language was more "figurative & synthesized" than "true & real" and only after the 16th century it became much more similar to the fluent Italian language of today.

In English U.S. also we can see some kind of different examples of "synthesizing" (and writing in "phonetic" manner": U2 = You too, B MYN 2NITE = as read on a car plate, "be mine tonight", etc.

For these reasons I "vote" Migliavacca as "I have a cow in any mile" or "I've a cow in a lot of miles" (this last meaning "I'm the owner of a lot of cows and of a lot of miles square land too").

Magnavacca. Varianti: Magnavacchi, Magliavacca e Migliavacca. Diffuso sporadicamcnte nel Nord-Est: solo Migliavacca e frequente in Lombardia. La base e il soprannome scherzoso o spregiativo Mangiavacca o Magnavacca, formato da mangia- o magna-, deverbale di mangiare o magnare, e vacca, documentato a Firenze nel 1260 come Mangiavacca e a Genova nel 1157 come Maniavacca. Migliavacca e un’alterazione, e un adattamento ipercorretto all’italiano, della forma lombarda maiavacca.

In English (Thank you, Anna Migliavacca):

Magnavacca. Variations: Magnavacchi, Magliavacca e Migliavacca. A little widespread in northeast: only Migliavacca is often present in Lombardia. The base is the playful or despising nickname Mangiavacca o Magnavacca, formed by mangia- or magna-, coming from the verb eating and cow, documented in Florence in 1260 as Mangiavacca and in Genova in 1157 as Maniavacca. Migliavacca is an alteration, coming in the Italian language from the dialectical form, from Lombardia, maiavacca.