avello

Forms

avello m (plural avelli)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian avel, the plural Old Italian avegli beside Old Italian avelli, and Old Italian lavello with the initial consonant kept.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lābellum (“small basin, tub”), with its initial ⟨l⟩ taken for the definite article: ⟨lavello⟩ was heard as ⟨l’avello⟩.^[4][5][6][7] The same Latin word gave the ordinary lavello (“sink”), of which it is thus a doublet.^[4][5] Nocentini compares the Lombard navel (“trough”), whose ⟨n⟩ comes from the indefinite article in the same way.^[5][8]

In northern Italy the word kept its ⟨l⟩ and its older sense of a water trough or holy-water basin: Meyer-Lübke lists Emilian lavel at Ferrara, Ligurian lavelu at Genoa and, at Bergamo, Lombard lael, which also means “coffin”.^[8][9] The Latin word passed into Old High German labal as well.^[8][9]

The Latin word is the diminutive of lābrum (“basin, tub”), which is traced to an older *lavābrum, from lavō (“to wash”).^{[10][11][12][13]} Isidore of Seville already explained the basin as the tub in which infants were washed, and the smaller word as its diminutive.^[14] The medieval derivation that Boccaccio offered, from Latin ēvellō (“to tear out”) because earth is torn up to bury the dead, is rejected by the modern dictionaries.^[14][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Florentine document of 1256, where the word means a burial pit or tomb.^[2][7] DELI's earliest example is from the Tesoro translation of 1280–1298, with the sense “tomb, sarcophagus”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Dante filled the burial ground of the heretics with avelli: Ché tra gli avelli fiamme erano sparte (“for flames were scattered among the tombs”, Inferno 9.118).^[14][3] Boccaccio set a scene of the Decameron on the raised marble tombs outside Santa Maria Novella in Florence.^[14][12] In the old language the word could also mean a plain pit dug in the earth.^[15]

From the 19th century it is a literary word, used by Foscolo and Manzoni, and figuratively it can stand for death itself.^[6][16] The popular phrase puzzare come un avello, “to stink like a tomb”, gave the Pistoia mountain verb avellare “to stink”.^[17][8]

Timeline

• 1256 – Avello is recorded in a Florentine document.^[2][7]
• 1280–1298 – The Tesoro translation uses the word for a tomb.^[4]
• Before 1313 – GRADIT's first date for the word.^[6]
• Early 14th century – Dante's Inferno places the heretics in burning avelli.^[15][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A tomb or sepulchre, especially a sarcophagus of stone or marble: Il vecchio custode apriva l'avello solo a novembre.^{[6][5][18][7]}
2. (figurative, literary) death.^[6][19]

Related words

• lavello
• Latin labellum

Usage notes

Set phrases include scendere nell'avello “to go down into the tomb, to die” and puzzare d'avello “to smell of the tomb”, said of someone very old or near death.^[20][13][12] The word has nothing to do with avellere “to tear out”, apart from Boccaccio's guess.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 872
15. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 377
16. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 89
18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
19. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
20. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier