acero

Forms

acero m (plural aceri)^[1] Old Italian forms include ageru and ayaru, both Sicilian.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin acerus, a Late Latin variant of Latin acer (“maple”).^[4][5][6][1] DELI starts instead from the ablative of the classical word.^[7][8] The Late Latin form is attested beside the classical one.^[9]

The Latin word survives in Spanish arce, from which Catalan ars was borrowed.^[4][10] Much of northern Italy has a type Vulgar Latin *acre or Vulgar Latin *acru instead, as in Friulian aiar and Piedmontese àgher, and the LEI shows by Old Sicilian ayaru and by place names that this layer is old.^[11][3][10] In Sicily, Calabria and Lucania a type Vulgar Latin *acinus, reshaped after the names of other trees such as Latin carpinus, took its place.^[11] The type of French érable has a different source.^[11][12]

The Latin tree name has a match in Germanic: Old High German ahorn, from Proto-Germanic *ahurna-, and a dialect form German Acher.^[13] Nocentini compares the gloss Ancient Greek ἄκαρνα (ákarna, “laurel”) in Hesychius and sets up a western Indo-European base Proto-Indo-European *aker-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ak- (“sharp”), after the pointed lobes of the leaves.^[4] De Vaan thinks the Latin and Greek tree names may have been borrowed from a non-Indo-European language.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine translation of Ovid's Ars amatoria, before 1313, where acero is the tree, Acer pseudoplatanus, and its wood.^[2] DELI dates the word to Simintendi, before 1333.^[7][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the wood: Crescenzi's agricultural treatise, in its Italian translation, says the maple grows in the Alps and is excellent for making cups, bowls, trenchers and viols.^[14] The sense has stayed close to that, and modern Italian also uses acero for the whole genus, written with a capital as Acer.^[5][15]

Species names were added as botany named them: acero campestre (Acer campestre), acero di monte (Acer pseudoplatanus), acero riccio (Acer platanoides) and acero del Canada (Acer saccharum), whose trunk yields a sugary sap.^[16][17][6] The family name aceracee is recorded in 1875, and acereta “maple wood” in 1863.^[7] DEI notes that aceracee goes back to Lindley, where De Candolle and Jussieu had proposed other names.^[7]

Timeline

• Before 1313 – The Florentine Ars amatoria translation uses acero.^[2]
• Before 1333 – Simintendi uses acero.^[7]
• 14th century – Old Sicilian ayaru is recorded.^[3]
• 1863 – Acereta “maple wood” is recorded in the fifth Crusca dictionary.^[7]
• 1875 – Aceracee is first recorded, in Lessona.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. maple: a tall tree with a broad, dense crown, leaves with five lobes and winged fruits, common in temperate regions.^[5][15][6]
2. The wood of this tree, used for furniture and floors: un tavolo di acero.^[5][15][6]
3. (botany) Any plant of the genus Acer, of the family aceracee: with a capital, the genus itself.^[5][15]

Word family

• acereta
• aceraia
• acereto
• aceracea

Related words

• loppio
• Latin acer
• Spanish arce

Usage notes

Acero is stressed on the first syllable.^[16] The field maple is also called loppio or oppio.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 360
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 35
12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
13. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli