armeno

Forms

armeno (feminine armena, masculine plural armeni, feminine plural armene)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian armino and Old Italian armini, and, after Old French, Old Italian ermino and Old Italian erminio.^[2]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin Armenius (“Armenian”), which is from Ancient Greek Ἀρμένιος (Arménios).^[3][2][4][5] The Italian form was remade on the plural ⟨armeni⟩, and the feminine on ⟨armene⟩.^[3][5][4] The LEI finds it as early as the 11th century.^[3] Wiktionary instead derives it from Latin armenus, with the stress moved by analogy with the name Armenia.^[1] The old forms in ⟨ermin-⟩ and ⟨hermin-⟩ come from Old French hermin.^[2]

The Latin adjective did not spread widely in Romance, but its derivative Vulgar Latin *armenīnus did: in the northeast it gave armellino “apricot” (the Armenian fruit), and it may be the source of ermellino “ermine”, although some scholars prefer another origin for that word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Uguccione da Lodi, a Cremonese poet of the early 13th century, as an adjective “of Armenia”.^[2] Devoto–Oli also dates the word to the early 13th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the plural armini named the people of Armenia (before 1336, Cenne de la Chitarra), and frati armeni an order of monks of the Armenian rite who followed the rule of Saint Basil.^[3][2] The modern adjective is recorded from 1563 (Ramusio), the noun for an inhabitant from 1628, in Pietro Della Valle's accounts of the Armenians of Persia, and the noun for the language from 1929.^[3][5][7]

Fixed phrases include bolo armeno, a reddish clay used in gilding and once in medicine as an astringent (from 1499), and rito armeno, the liturgy of the Armenian Catholics.^[3][6] In Goldoni's Venice an armeno with a beard was a stock comic figure.^[7]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses armeno.^[2]
• Before 1336 – Cenne de la Chitarra has armini “the people of Armenia”.^[3]
• 1499 – Bolo armeno appears in the Florentine Ricettario.^[3]
• 1563 – Ramusio uses the adjective “of Armenia”.^[3]
• 1628 – Pietro Della Valle uses the noun for an Armenian.^[3][5]
• 1929 – The Enciclopedia Italiana uses armeno for the language.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or from Armenia or its people.^[5][6][8]
2. (religion) Of the Armenian Church, founded between the 3rd and 4th centuries by Gregory the Illuminator: rito armeno.^[5][6][8]

Noun

1. A native or inhabitant of Armenia: Armenian.^[5][6][9]
2. (masculine singular only) The Armenian language, an Indo-European language attested from the 5th century AD.^[5][6][9]

Word family

• armenoide
• bolarmeno

Related words

• Armenia
• ermellino
• Latin Armenius

Usage notes

A separate word armeno in the dialect of Cortona is an invitation to a meal among relatives and friends on the days after Easter; it is a deverbal noun from the local verb for “to invite to dinner”.^[10] In Florence capo armeno is an odd, scatterbrained person.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 j k l m Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1306
4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 293
5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
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, 669
8. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
9. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET, p. 92