armamento

Forms

armamento m (plural armamenti)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin armāmentum (“equipment; ship's tackle”), a word mostly used in the plural, armāmenta.^[2][3][4][5] The LEI lists the Italian word among the learned forms (II.), as are French armement, Old Occitan armament, Catalan armament and Portuguese armamento;^[5] Latin left no inherited outcome.^[5] DEI and the GDLI explain the Latin word as “a store of arms”, but the Latin meaning was a ship's gear and rigging, and equipment of any kind.^[6][7][8]

The Latin noun is formed armō (“to arm, equip”) with the suffix -mentum, and the verb is formed from Latin arma (“arms, weapons”).^[8][1][9] De Vaan derives the plural noun from Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to fit together”): “what is fitted together” meant tools before it meant weapons.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1286–90, dated 1289.^[4] DELI first finds the military sense, “arming; the weapons of an armed force”, in the Intelligenza at the start of the 14th century, which praises a king ricco possente con bell'armamento (rich and mighty, with fine arms).^[10][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named the weapons and means of war, the act of equipping for war and an armed expedition, the gear of a ship and the fitting out of a ship, and also the harness of a donkey.^[4] The naval sense is dated by DELI to Cavalca, before 1342.^[10] The LEI records it from 1304 in the volgarizzamento of Plutarch, and also the senses “armoury” (1557) and “armour” (1574), which later fell out of use.^[5]

In the plural armamenti are the weapons and arms industry of a country, as in corsa agli armamenti, the arms race.^[2][3] In engineering the word names the parts a machine or installation needs to work, and armamento ferroviario the rails and fittings of a railway line.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1289 – The word appears in a Florentine document.^[4]
• 1304 – The Italian translation of Plutarch uses armamento for arms and military equipment.^[5]
• Early 14th century – The Intelligenza uses the word for “arms”.^[10]
• Before 1342 – Cavalca uses it for fitting out a ship.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of arming or arming oneself.^[2][1]
2. The weaponry of a soldier or unit; in the plural, the arms and military production of a country: corsa agli armamenti.^[2][3][11]
3. (engineering) The parts and fittings a machine, device or installation needs to work; on railways, the track and its fittings.^[2][3][11]
4. (nautical) The fitting out of a ship with the materials and crew it needs; the materials and crew themselves.^[2][1]
5. (rowing) The rowers of a boat.^[11][12]

Related words

• arma
• armare
• armamentario
• disarmo
• Latin armāmenta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
5. ^ 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, 1236
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 292
7. ^ 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, 665
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org