Piemonte

Forms

Piemonte m^[1]

Etymology

The name is formed from Italian piè + monte, “foot of the mountain”, and first meant any place lying at the foot of a mountain.^[2][3][4] In 1305 it is recorded as Medieval Latin Pedemontem.^[4] Wiktionary gives as its source Pedemontium, “at the foot of the mountains”, or Pedemontis, from Latin pēs (“foot”) and mōns (“mountain”).^[1] DELI, quoting Olivieri, calls the origin of the name obvious.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a common noun piemonte, “land at the foot of a mountain”, is recorded from the 14th century.^[3] Tommaseo and the GDLI quote for it a Pisan statute that orders the captain to raise a company of 150 men in della Capitania di piemonte.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

DELI, quoting Olivieri, calls it the most recent of the names of Italy's regions: the Romans did not know it, and the area had no unity of its own.^[4] In the first half of the 14th century it meant only the land between the Po, the Sangone and the Alps; in the second half Charles of Anjou gave the name to his lands between the Stura and the Tanaro, Charles II called them a county, and under the Princes of Achaea they became a principality.^[4] Later the name spread to each new territory added to the lands of the house of Savoy.^[4] The adjective piemontese is recorded from 1558.^[4]

The common noun lived on in literary use: Marcello Adriani glossed piemonte as the foot or slopes of a mountain, and Gioberti defended it as good Italian although the dictionary did not list it.^[2] Tommaseo also records Piemonte for a map of the Principality of Piedmont.^[5]

English took the name as piemont in 1755 for a region of the United States at the foot of the Appalachians; the ⟨d⟩ was added by 1855.^[6] From 1860 piedmont meant any area at the foot of a mountain range.^[6][7] French piémont in this sense is recorded from 1908, and the mineral piemontite, German Piemontit, from 1853.^[7]

Timeline

• 1305 – Medieval Latin Pedemontem is recorded.^[4]
• 14th century – piemonte “land at the foot of a mountain” is recorded.^[3]
• 1558 – piemontese is recorded.^[4]
• 1755 – English piemont names a region of the United States.^[6][7]
• 1853 – German Piemontit names a mineral.^[7]
• 1860 – English piedmont is used for any area at the foot of mountains.^[6][7]
• 1908 – French piémont is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. Piedmont: a region of northern Italy, bordering France, the Aosta Valley, Switzerland, Lombardy and Liguria.^[8][1][9]

Word family

• piemontese

Related words

• piede
• monte
• pedemontano
• English piedmont

Usage notes

The lower-case piemonte, “land at the foot of a mountain”, is archaic and literary.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2910
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
8. ^ De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org