argine

Forms

argine m (plural argini)^[1] Old Italian forms include arçer, arçero, Old Italian argele, Old Italian argene and Old Italian argili.^[2] In the north the word ends in -o or loses its final vowel, as in Venetian àrzare, Veronese aldzaro and Milanese argen.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin arger (“heap of earth; embankment”), a form of agger (“rampart, mound”) that Priscian attributes to the early language.^[4][5] DELI and Nocentini give it as a Late Latin accusative form standing for the classical one.^[6][7][1]

Nocentini and Devoto–Oli explain the form by two dissimilations: the double ⟨gg⟩ of the classical word became ⟨rg⟩, and the second /r/ of ⟨argerem⟩ then became /n/.^[7][8] The dialects show other dissimilated outcomes, /r/…/l/ and /l/…/r/.^[6][4] Battisti and Alessio see the ⟨ar-⟩ for ⟨ad-⟩ as a dialect feature, found in northern Italy and in Spanish, and note Medieval Latin argerus in 1153.^[5] They find no record of a Latin form in ⟨-inis⟩ and think the ending may come from dissimilation together with the pull of nouns in ⟨-inis⟩.^[5] Devoto saw a Sabine ⟨ar-⟩ in the word and a cross with Latin līmen (“threshold”), and Sabatini–Coletti also allow that cross.^[9][10]

The undissimilated type survives in Venetian àrzare and Friulian àrzar, which the LEI takes as a sign of Venetian influence in the early Middle Ages.^[4][3] With the second /r/ dissimilated the word is Spanish arcén, recorded from 1570 as the edge of a ditch.^[4][7][3] Forms without /r/ are learned borrowings of the classical word in translations of the 13th and 14th centuries.^[4]

The classical noun is formed from aggerō (“to heap up, bring”), a compound of ad- and gerō (“to carry”).^[6][11][12] Nocentini sees in it the imperative of the verb, first a command to raise a bank by heaping up earth and then the name of the bank itself.^[7] De Vaan notes that the verb is now usually derived from the root of agō (“to drive”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the TLIO is a Veronese document from after 1268, where the word names the bank of earth along a ditch or a watercourse.^[2] DELI and GRADIT date the standard form from Dante, who wrote of the stream whose vapour shields l'acqua e li argini (“the water and the banks”) from the fire (Inferno 15.3).^[6][11][14]

Semantic evolution

In Dante's Inferno the word also names the banks that divide the ditches of Malebolge, and Old Italian used it for the edge of a road.^[2] Giovanni Villani tells of a commander who had the banks of a river broken in several places, and Leonardo set argine apart from ripa, a bank higher than the levee, and riva, a lower one.^[14] In Old Italian the noun could be feminine as well as masculine.^[2]

By extension the word came to mean any earthwork, the embankment of a road or railway, and the earth rampart of a fortification.^[11][15][16] The figurative sense, a check or barrier against something harmful, grew beside the literal one, and the verb arginare “to embank” (before 1530) took the sense “to restrain” in 1938.^[6][11] In show jumping it names an artificial obstacle.^[11][8] English borrowed the military sense as argin in 1589, a rare word.^[17]

Timeline

• 1153 – Medieval Latin arger(us) is recorded.^[5]
• After 1268 – A Veronese document gives the first Italian record.^[2]
• c. 1313 – Dante uses argine in the Inferno.^[4][11]
• Before 1530 – The verb arginare “to surround with banks” is recorded.^[6]
• 1570 – Spanish arcén is first recorded.^[4]
• 1589 – English argin is recorded in the military sense.^[17]
• Before 1644 – Arginatura, the whole set of works along a river, appears in B. Castelli.^[6]
• 1938 – Arginare is used figuratively for “to put a brake on” by E. Pea.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An embankment or levee built along the banks of a river or canal to hold its floods.^[11][8][15]
2. (by extension) Any barrier built against water.^[11][8]
3. The embankment of a road or railway line, and its edge.^[11][8][16]
4. (figurative) A curb or barrier against something harmful: porre un argine “to check”.^[11][8][15]
5. (military) A rampart of beaten earth raised for defence.^[11][8][16]
6. (equestrianism) An artificial obstacle on a show-jumping course.^[11][8]

Word family

• arginare
• arginatura
• arginello
• contrargine
• arginale

Related words

• esagerare
• Latin agger

Usage notes

Hydraulic engineering distinguishes the argine maestro, built well back from the riverbed, from the argine in froldo, built straight on from the bank.^[15] Rompere gli argini or rompere ogni argine is used figuratively for throwing off every restraint.^[18][15] The diminutives are arginello and, less often, arginetto.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1098
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 285
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 646
15. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli