Etymologically
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amo

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Pronunciation

Forms

amo m (plural ami)[1] The old plural is àmora.[2][3][4] Tuscan rural speech has lamo, with the article fused to the noun.[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hāmus (“hook, fish-hook”).[7][8][9][1] The old plural àmora leads DEI to suppose a neuter plural Vulgar Latin *hamora, as in the Calabrian dialects.[10]

The same word is Old French ain, Old Occitan am, Catalan ham and Romansh aum, while modern French hameçon continues a derivative and Spanish anzuelo and Portuguese anzol go back to a diminutive Vulgar Latin *hamiciolus.[8][11][12] It is missing from Romanian.[10]

The Latin word has no established etymology.[13][8][14] DEI and the GDLI compare Ancient Greek χαμός (khamós, “curved”) from Hesychius, but de Vaan points out that the Latin long vowel can't be explained from it, and Wiktionary mentions a possible link with Proto-Germanic *hamô.[10][15][13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur super natura feminarum of the 13th century, for the barbed hook, hidden by bait, used for catching fish.[7][6] Dante uses it figuratively for flattery or a snare before 1321.[7]

Semantic evolution

Iacopone compares a text to a fishhook that is sweet outside and bitter within: Testo a l'amo s'arsemiglia, che de fore ha lo dolzore.[4] Love poets wrote of being caught all'amo like a fish by the lady's charms.[6] Giovanni Villani tells of a hook driven into a prisoner's tongue to stop him speaking, and the proverbial pescare con l'amo d'oro, “to fish with a golden hook”, means risking more than one can gain.[6][2][16]

In the 16th century Ariosto used it for the hooked flukes of an anchor.[9] The verb slamare, “to unhook”, formed from the variant lamo, is recorded in 1983.[8]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – First record according to Zingarelli.[3]
  • 13th century – The Venetian Proverbia super natura feminarum uses amo.[7][6]
  • Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi compares a text to a fishhook.[9][4]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for flattery or deceit.[7]
  • 14th century – Giovanni Villani tells of a hook driven into a tongue.[6][2]
  • 1983 – Slamare is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fish-hook: Ho messo un verme sull'amo.[9][17][18]
  2. (figurative) A lure or trap: abboccare all'amo, to swallow the bait.[9][17][3]
  3. The hooked point of an anchor, an arrow or the like.[9][17][19]
  4. (ancient Rome) A hooked iron set in the ground in front of entrenchments.[9]

Word family

  • slamare

Usage notes

Amo is also the first person singular present of amare (“I love”), and in Roman speech a form of abbiamo (“we have”), both unrelated to the noun.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 422
  5. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 50
  6. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  7. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 173
  11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  17. ^ 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
  18. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  19. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli