arboscello

Forms

arboscello m (plural arboscelli)^[1] Old Italian forms include arbuscello, arbucello, albuscello and alboscello, the last two with ⟨l⟩ from albero.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arbuscellum, a diminutive of a diminutive of Latin arbor (“tree”).^[5][6][1][7] The sources differ on the middle step: GRADIT, Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli name arbuscula (“little tree”), while DEI, Treccani and Battaglia name arbusculum.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]} The LEI derives the regional Latin form from Late Latin arbusculus, recorded in the 6th century in Oribasius.^[3]

In Gaul the word was reshaped after the Latin word for tree, as Medieval Latin arbriscellus in the Reichenau Glosses shows; from that form come French arbrisseau, Old Occitan arbrissel and Catalan arbruixell.^[3][11][4] The form without ⟨r⟩ survives in an Old Occitan place name, ⟨Arbuisel⟩ (Rouergue, 1195).^[3] Old Bergamasque erbosel took its vowel from erba.^[11][4]

The Latin word, older arbōs, is traced by de Vaan to Proto-Indo-European *h₃rdʰ-ōs (“height, uprightness”), related to arduus (“high”).^[14][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Rinaldo d'Aquino, in the first half of the 13th century, in the form arbuscello, “a small tree, a young plant”.^[2][15] The form arboscello appears in Dante, about 1319, and in Petrarch, before 1374.^[3][15]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its meaning since the 13th century.^[2][8] Dante's Purgatorio has vedi l'erbetta, i fiori e li arbuscelli (“see the grass, the flowers and the shrubs”), which the ground there brings forth of itself.^[13] Petrarch speaks of the arboscel he honours in his rhymes, and Boccaccio describes a spring screened by young arbuscelli.^[13]

Tommaseo's dictionary gave it a botanical definition: a woody plant whose trunk stands apart from the branches and stays below three times a man's height.^[16] The older arbuscello lasted in literature until Foscolo (1798).^[3] Today the word is literary and rare.^[6][8][12]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – Rinaldo d'Aquino uses arbuscello.^[2][15]
• c. 1319 – Dante uses arboscello.^[3]
• 1320 – The form arbucello appears in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[3]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch uses arboscello.^[15]
• 1798 – Foscolo is the last writer the LEI cites for arbuscello.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A small or young tree; a sapling or shrub.^{[8][6][12][1]}

Related words

• albero
• arbusto
• alberello
• Latin arbor
• French arbrisseau

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 823
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 269
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ 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, 614
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET