armento

Forms

armento m (plural armenti)^[1] Old Italian forms include the plural Old Italian armenta and Old Italian ermento and Old Italian ormento.^[2][3]

Etymology

DELI and Zingarelli call it a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin armentum (“herd of large cattle”).^[4][5][6] The LEI, however, lists the Italian word with the inherited words, beside dialect forms such as Neapolitan armiento and Sicilian armentu.^[7]

The Latin word survives in Old French arment, Portuguese armento, Sardinian armentu, Friulian arment and Romansh armaint (“head of cattle”).^[7][8][9] In Latin it named a herd of large animals, as against pecus (“small livestock”) and grex (“flock”).^[7] An older feminine armenta is found in Ennius.^[10][1]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun and arma (“arms”) separately from the Indo-European root meaning “to join”, through Proto-Italic *armnto- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂er-mn-to-.^[11] Nocentini also connects it with the root of the word for arms in the sense “troop, equipment”, and compares Old Norse jǫrmuni (“large cattle”).^[8] Devoto saw the herd as a kind of economic equipment.^[12][4] Others, among them ancient Romans, linked the word with arō (“to plough”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Pisan translation of the treatises of Albertano, of 1287–1288, in the sense “herd of large domestic animals, especially cattle or horses”.^[2] The LEI cites Giamboni about 1292, and DELI first finds it in Dante.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

Dante tells of the theft of the great herd (del grande armento) kept nearby.^[3] Old texts also have the plural armenta.^[3][7] Poets extended the word to other flocks: alato armento for a swarm of bees (Rucellai, before 1525), stellato armento for the stars (Anguillara, before 1572) and marini armenti for schools of fish (Tasso, before 1595).^[7] Leopardi's line odi greggi belar, muggire armenti shows its literary register.^[13][14]

In the dialects the collective sense weakened.^[7] In the conservative areas of northeastern Italy, in the Engadine and in Portuguese the word came to mean a single large animal, especially a cow.^[7][9][10]

Timeline

• 1287–1288 – A Pisan translation of Albertano has armento.^[2]
• About 1292 – Giamboni uses it.^[7]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it in the Commedia.^[4]
• Before 1525 – Rucellai calls a swarm of bees alato armento.^[7]
• Before 1595 – Tasso calls schools of fish marini armenti.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A herd of large domestic animals, especially cattle or horses: Il pastore riportava l'armento a valle.^{[6][15][5][16]}
2. By extension, a herd or pack of animals of any kind.^[6][16]
3. (poetic) A school of fish.^[6][14][1]
4. (figurative, derogatory) A herd of people degraded by ignorance or servitude.^[17][2]

Word family

• armentario
• armentiere
• armentizio

Related words

• arma
• mandria
• gregge
• Latin armentum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1321
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 293
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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli