bolgia means any of the divisions of the eighth circle of Hell, Malebolge, in Dante's Divine Comedy. It carries an Arena rating of 1333, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bolgia ranks #129 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #209 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #221 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #431 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
bolgia is pronounced /ˈboʊldʒə/.
Why “bolgia” is a great word
A deep, ring-shaped trench forming one of the ten subdivisions within the eighth circle of Dante's Hell, each designed for a specific category of fraudulent sinner. Its etymology descends from Italian *bolgia* ("ditch, pouch"), from Old French *bolge*, *bouge*, from Late Latin *bulga* ("wallet, purse"), from Gaulish *bolgā*, from Proto-Celtic *bolgos* ("sack, bag"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ-* ("to swell"). Unlike a "circle," which is a major, discrete level of the infernal geography, or a generic "pit," a bolgia is a meticulously crafted architectural unit of damnation: a sunken pouch within the larger complex called Malebolge. It is the stone-rimmed ditch holding the simoniacs upside-down like living stumps, the boiling pitch that seals the barrators, and the frozen, serpent-infested trench where thieves endlessly mutate—each a swollen purse cinched tight around its designated evil, proving that damnation, too, has its perfect, awful subdivisions.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from Italian bolgia (“ditch, trench”), from Old French bolge, bouge, from Late Latin bulga (“wallet, purse”), from Gaulish bolgā, from Proto-Celtic *bolgos (“sack, bag”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”). Doublet of budge and bulge.
noun
- Any of the divisions of the eighth circle of Hell, Malebolge, in Dante's Divine Comedy.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.