The Serbo-Croatian loan-word tunđela »pillow«, repeatedly found in various variants since 1275 in Latin and Italian documents in Dubrovnik and sporadically in Trogir (1272) and in Zadar (1289), has also been abundantly represented in old Croatian writers from Dubrovnik and neighbourhood (16th — 19th centuries) and in some older lexicographers. While the philologists of the 19th century F. Miklošič, P, Budmani and L. Zore only noted down the said word, in the 20th century two etymons of the word were proposed. According to P. Skok (1934) the form tugdella was originated by the consonantal dissimilation l — I > d — I from the confirmed Middle Latin form tugulella (the unaccented vowel u was dropped out). The etymon of this form would be the Frankish word thwahlja »cover«. According to A. Vaillant (1938) the form tugdella might have originated from unconfirmed Venetian diminutive *colcedella < CULCITA + ELLA, while (according to the same author) the form tugulella might be subsequent. None of the suggested etymons is irreproachable either from the phonetic or semantic point of view. As French taie »pillow-slip« comes from the Latin word of Greek origin THECA »case«, »sheath«, »box« (»loculus in quo aliquid recondimus«), while Italian teca and tega mean »box for valuables«, respectively »pod«, it is possible that at some time, at least in some parts of Italy, these terms had the meaning of »case«, »cover(ing)« from which the first part (the initial moneme) of most Romance and Serbo-Croatian reflexes in Dalmatia derives, while the second part should be explained in different ways either .as a group of two diminutive endings or as the reflex of Middle Greek endyma »clothing«, confirmed in Various parts of Italy (e. g. in Romagna as edma »pillow-slip«, in Venice as intima »(inner) pillow-case«, in Naples (1026) as indona). According to the above, already before the 13th century, at least four types with the meaning »pillow-slip«: *tegulella, *tega + endema + ella, *teca + -I indona + ella and *tettulella (produced by contamination with TECTUM > tetto »roof«) reached the Croatian coast from several Italian centres. Only in the area of Dubrovnik did they enter our language by 'the Dalmatian mediation: older Serbo-Croatian reflexes have the group -gd- which corresponds to the older Ragusan phase, while the latter have -dg-, -d- according to the later Ragusan or Dubrovnik—Venetian form. Various reflexes of the Serbo-Croatian phoneme e and the latest »jotovanje« with the loss of the consonant g are later Serbo- Croatian phenomena (as gde > gdje > dje > đe). As for the semantic aspect, we have changes caused by metonymy (pars pro toto) and in the change »jastučnica« > »jastuk« there is nothing of the extraordinary.
