Etymologically
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armadio

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Pronunciation

  • /arˈma.djo/[1]

Forms

armadio m (plural armadi)[1] The older form Old Italian armario fell out of use after the 18th century; the TLIO also records Old Italian armaro and Old Italian armer.[2][3] Northern dialects have forms of the type Venetian armaro and Lombard armari, and Lucca has armale.[4][5]

Etymology

It continues borrowed from Latin armārium (“cupboard, chest”), first as Old Italian armario.[2][6][7][1] The ⟨d⟩ arose by dissimilation of the two /r/ sounds, as in rado beside raro and old Old Italian fedire for ferire.[2][6][4] Treccani adds a probable influence of madia (“kneading trough”), and Devoto explains the form by such a crossing.[8][9]

DEI and Prati take the Italian word as a learned or late borrowing: DEI explains that in the Middle Ages the cupboard was found only in great houses and monasteries.[10][4] Popular outcomes of the Latin word survive in the eastern Romance languages, such as Romanian almar and Romanian armar and Dalmatian armir, in Friulian armâr, and in northern Italy, Tuscany and the South.[5][11] Elsewhere it gave French armoire, Occitan armari, Catalan armari, Spanish armario and Portuguese armário.[11][12]

The Latin noun is formed from arma (“arms; tools”) with the suffix -ārium.[13][1] The LEI takes arma here in the sense of household utensils, so that the word first meant a place for keeping tools.[5] De Vaan derives arma from the root Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to fit together”).[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Bono Giamboni's translation of Orosius (before 1292), with armario for a large piece of furniture for keeping things, often books.[3][2] The form armadio appears in Maestro Alberto (before 1332): È qui l'armadio de' libri, “here is the book cupboard”.[2][15]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century armario could also mean the town archive in Tuscany, northern Italy and Umbria, and the TLIO records the figurative sense of the heart or soul as a container of virtues or vices.[10][3] The LEI explains how the object developed from the medieval chest for linen and clothes, or from a wall niche closed with a curtain or doors, into the modern wardrobe; in the 16th century a two-part cupboard still looked like two chests stacked together.[5]

The jocular sense “a tall, heavily built person” is recent and recorded in the GDLI supplement.[15][7] The phrase avere uno scheletro nell'armadio, to have a skeleton in the cupboard, and the cabina armadio, a walk-in wardrobe, are modern.[16][7]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Armario in Bono Giamboni's Orosius.[3][2]
  • Before 1332 – Armadio in Maestro Alberto.[2]
  • 14th century – Armario also means a town archive.[10]
  • 18th century – Armario goes out of use.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. wardrobe, cupboard: a tall piece of furniture closed by doors, with shelves or drawers, for clothes, linen and other things: Ho messo i maglioni nell'armadio.[7][16][17]
  2. armadio a muro: a built-in cupboard set into a wall.[7][16][18]
  3. (figurative, jocular) A tall, heavily built person: Il buttafuori era un armadio.[7][16][17]

Word family

  • armadietto

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  4. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 69
  5. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1256
  6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 291
  11. ^ a b 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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  16. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  17. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  18. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli