albero

Forms

albero m (plural alberi, diminutive alberèllo or alberétto or alberìno, augmentative alberóne, pejorative alberàccio, derogatory alberùccio)^[1] Old and poetic forms are arbore and albore, also feminine, and alboro.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin arborem (“tree”), the accusative of the Latin word.^{[2][6][7][8][1]} The first “r” became “l” by dissimilation from the second, as DELI and Devoto explain it, and Wiktionary traces the word through the older forms albore and Old Italian alboro.^[2][9][3][1] Nocentini instead puts the “l” down to the influence of the other “albero”, the white poplar (see Usage notes).^[6] Latin “arbor” was feminine, and the feminine survives only in Logudorese and Portuguese.^[5][10]

The word is found in all the Romance languages: French arbre, Occitan arbre, Catalan arbre, Spanish árbol, Portuguese árvore, Sardinian àrbere and Romanian arbore.^[6][10] The mast of a ship had its own name in Latin, Latin mālus, but this did not survive in Romance.^[5]

The Latin word had an older nominative arbōs.^[11][12] Nocentini finds no comparisons in other languages.^[6] De Vaan connects it with arduus (“high, steep”) and reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₃rdʰ-ōs (“height, uprightness”), whose meaning may have narrowed to “upright tree”, but notes that this would be a very archaic formation.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia quae dicuntur of the late 12th century.^[13] DELI finds albore in Pier della Vigna before 1249, arbore in Bonagiunta Orbicciani before 1257 and albero in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century, in the sense of a perennial plant with a woody trunk that branches higher up.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante used the word before 1321 for the mast of a ship.^[2] Old Italian also used it for wood as a material, for the Cross, and for a family's descent.^[13] Albero della genealogia is found in Vasari in 1550, and albero genealogico in 1771, after French arbre généalogique (1671).^[2]

Branching structures in anatomy took the name in the 18th century: albero della vita for the white matter of the cerebellum in 1797, and albero bronchiale in 1941.^[2] In 1797 D'Alberti also recorded the mechanical sense, a rotating shaft that transmits power.^[2] Albero di Natale is a calque of German Weihnachtsbaum, and the breadfruit tree, albero del pane, is named for its fruit, which is cooked and eaten like bread.^[2][8] The word was later taken up for trees in graph theory, computing and syntax.^[7][3]

The verb alberare meant “to set up the masts of a ship” in Luigi Pulci in 1483, and only in 1855 “to plant trees”.^[2] Inalberare dates from the second half of the 14th century, and Sacchetti used inalberarsi for a horse rearing up and for a person flaring up.^[6][14]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The word in the Venetian Proverbia quae dicuntur.^[13]
• Before 1249 – Albore in Pier della Vigna.^[2]
• Before 1257 – Arbore in Bonagiunta Orbicciani.^[2]
• End of the 13th century – Albero in the Novellino.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the word for a ship's mast.^[2]
• About 1350 – Albereto “grove” in the translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi.^[2]
• 1550 – Albero della genealogia in Vasari.^[2]
• 1771 – Albero genealogico, after French arbre généalogique.^[2]
• 1797 – The mechanical sense “shaft” in D'Alberti's dictionary.^[2]
• 1941 – Albero bronchiale in the dictionary of the Accademia d'Italia.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tree, a perennial plant with a woody trunk and branches starting some way above the ground: Dietro la casa abbiamo piantato tre alberi da frutto.^{[7][8][3][15]}
2. In the names of particular plants: albero del pane (breadfruit), albero di Giuda (Judas tree).^[7][15][4]
3. (nautical) A mast: albero di maestra (mainmast).^[7][3][15]
4. A branching diagram that shows relations of descent or derivation: albero genealogico (family tree).^[7][4]
5. (mathematics) A connected graph without cycles.^[7]
6. (linguistics) A diagram of the structure of a sentence.^[7]
7. (computing) A data structure arranged like a tree.^[3]
8. (anatomy) A branching structure: albero bronchiale, albero vascolare.^[7][3][4]
9. (mechanics) A shaft that receives or transmits motion: albero motore, albero a camme (camshaft).^[7][3][15]

Word family

• alberare
• alberata
• alberatura
• albereto
• alberello
• inalberare

Related words

• arboreo
• arboricoltura
• arbusto
• arboscello
• arborescente
• Latin arbor
• French arbre

Usage notes

A second albero, a technical and Tuscan word for the white poplar (also albaro), comes from Late Latin albarus, a derivative of albus “white” found in glosses.^{[7][16][4][17]} The TLIO records it in a Pistoia document after 1291, and GRADIT dates it to 1499.^[13][7] German borrowed it in 1572 as Alberbaum.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 109
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 34
15. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
18. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it