arco

Forms

arco m (plural archi)^[1] The old plural was the feminine àrcora, used from the 13th to the 17th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin arcus (“bow; arch”), first of all the weapon.^{[5][6][7][1][8]} The word is continued in every Romance language: French arc, Occitan arc, Catalan arc, Spanish arco, Portuguese arco, Sardinian arcu and Romanian arc.^[6][9][8] DÉRom reconstructs a neuter, a masculine and a feminine Proto-Romance type, and sees the neuter continued in Italian through the plural.^[10]

DELI calls the origin of the Latin word uncertain.^[5] Nocentini notes that, as usual with names of weapons, comparisons are few, the closest being Old English earh (“arrow”).^[6] De Vaan concludes from Latin forms such as arquus that the stem ended in a labiovelar, which matches the Germanic word for the arrow; he assumes an Italo-Germanic word for the bow and connects it with words for the willow and the juniper, such as Ancient Greek ἄρκευθος (árkeuthos, “juniper”) and Proto-Slavic *orkyta (“willow”), whose supple twigs were used to make bows.^[11][1] Wiktionary gives Proto-Italic *arkuos and Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷos (“bow, arrow”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Ruggieri Apugliese, a Sienese poet of the mid-13th century, for the weapon made of a strong, flexible staff whose ends are tied under tension with a cord, used to shoot arrows.^[12] DELI's first example, with the same sense, is in Garzo in the 13th century, and an Arezzo text has it about 1282.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

Latin already used the word for the rainbow, for the arch of a building and for any curve; the musical bow, other bow-shaped objects and the anatomical arches come from Medieval Latin uses of the 13th century.^[8] Old Italian arco was also a unit of distance, a bowshot, the bow of Love and Cupid, the sign of Sagittarius and the bow used to beat wool, arco da lana.^[12] DELI dates the architectural sense before 1321 and the span of time in 1304–1308, both in Dante, and the bow of string instruments in 1529, in Castiglione.^[5] The derivative arcolaio “yarn winder” (about 1370) is formed from the old plural àrcora.^[6]

In Calabria arcu still means the rainbow, and male d'arcu is jaundice.^[2] Modern senses include the geometrical arc, the arc of electric light and, in politics, the range of parties, as in arco costituzionale, the parties that drafted the Italian constitution.^[7][13] The musical arco was borrowed by French (1703), German (1732) and English (1740), and is also a direction in scores to play with the bow again.^[14]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – Ruggieri Apugliese uses arco for the weapon.^[12]
• About 1282 – The word is recorded at Arezzo.^[8]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for a span of time.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for an arch.^[5]
• About 1370 – Arcolaio “yarn winder” is recorded.^[6]
• 1529 – Castiglione uses arco for the bow of string instruments.^[5]
• 1703 – French borrows the musical term.^[14]
• 1740 – The musical term is first recorded in English.^[14]
• 1856 – Archiacuto “pointed-arched” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bow, the weapon for shooting arrows, now chiefly sporting equipment: tiro con l'arco.^[7][15][3]
2. (music) The bow of a string instrument; in the plural, the strings of an orchestra.^[7][15]
3. (architecture) An arch: arco a tutto sesto, a round arch.^[7][15][3]
4. (geometry) An arc, the part of a curve between two points.^[7][15][3]
5. Anything curved: l'arco delle sopracciglia;^[7][15] (poetic) the vault of heaven; the rainbow.^[7][15]
6. (figurative) A span of time: nell'arco di un mese.^[7][15][16]
7. A range or series: un arco di opinioni molto vario.^[7]
8. (anatomy) A curved part of a bone, vessel or nerve: arco dell'aorta.^[7][13]
9. (politics) A grouping of political forces: l'arco della maggioranza.^[7][13]

Word family

• arcata
• archetto
• arcolaio
• inarcare
• archivolto
• archiacuto
• arcoscenico
• archipendolo
• sottarco
• arcobaleno

Related words

• archettaio
• arcuare
• arciere
• arcuato
• Latin arcus
• French arc

Usage notes

Figurative phrases include avere molte frecce al proprio arco “to have many resources”, stare con l'arco teso “to be on one's guard” and tendere l'arco “to aim hard at something”.^[16][3][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 277
3. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
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 d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 929
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana