barba

barba¹ beard

Etymology tree of barba¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin barba

French barbe

English barb

Italian barba

Spanish barba

From the same root · barba¹

Latin barbātus ← barba

Latin barbus ← barba

Pronunciation

• /ˈbar.ba/^[1]

Forms

barba f (plural barbe, diminutive barbétta (“beard”) or barbettìna (“beard”); barbìna (“beard”) or (more common) barbìno m (“beard”); barbicèlla (“root”) or barbicìna (“root”) or barbolìna (“root”), augmentative barbóna (“beard”) or (more common) barbóne m (“beard”), pejorative barbàccia (“beard”), derogatory barbùccia (“beard”))^[1]

Etymology

The word for the beard is inherited from Latin barba (“beard”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is pan-Romance: French barbe, Occitan barba, Catalan barba, Spanish barba, Portuguese barba and Romanian barbă.^[3][5] The Latin word also meant “chin” from the 3rd century, a sense continued in Romanian, Old Occitan and Old Spanish and in old Tuscan and southern Italian dialects.^[5][6]

The Latin word comes from Proto-Italic *farðā, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰéh₂ (“beard”).^[1][7] The word is found only in part of the Indo-European area, beside Lithuanian barzdà, Old High German bart and English beard.^[2][3][7] Nocentini traces it to a root Proto-Indo-European *bʰerdʰ- (“to cut”), while de Vaan finds the vowel *a hard to explain and thinks of a word borrowed from a non-Indo-European language.^[3][7] Proto-Italic *farfa should have given Latin *farba: the initial b- is put down to assimilation to the following -rb-, and Italian farfecchie “moustache” may come from a related Sabine or Umbrian form.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Monza Glossary of the 10th century, for the hair of a man's face.^[5][8][3] In literature DELI first dates it before 1294 in Brunetto Latini, who describes “a white face with a great beard that spreads over the chest”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the beard as a sign of dignity and in gestures of insult or grief, plucking another's beard or one's own;^[8] barba also meant the chin and the face.^[8] Dante uses it for the muzzle hair of Cerberus (1300–13).^[2][9] From the 14th century the plural barbe named the fine roots of plants (mettere le barbe “to take root”, also figurative), and Pliny had already used the Latin word for the down on plants.^[2][6] A bearded man of experience and authority was a barba from before 1446;^[2] farsi la barba “to shave” is recorded before 1543.^[2]

The colloquial sense “boredom” (che barba!) was recorded in 1918, perhaps from the image of something as long as a flowing beard;^[2][3] French slang has la barbe! too.^[2][3] Zoology uses barbe for the barbs of a feather (1935).^[2] Derivatives include barbiere (Siena, 1235), barbuto (Dante) and barbone, first a large beard, then a poodle and, in the north, a tramp (1942).^[2]

Timeline

• 10th century – The Monza Glossary has barba.^[5][8]
• 1235 – Barbiere is recorded in a Sienese tax list.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses barba “beard”.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses barba for the muzzle hair of an animal.^[2]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses barbe “roots”.^[2]
• Before 1543 – Farsi la barba “to shave” is recorded in Firenzuola.^[2]
• 1918 – Panzini records che barba! “what a bore!”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. beard, the hair growing on a man's cheeks and chin: farsi la barba, to shave.^[4][10][11]
2. The tuft of hair on the muzzle of some animals, especially goats.^[4][10]
3. A bearded man; a man of experience and authority: le barbe dell'università.^[4][11][12]
4. (botany) A fine, threadlike root; in the plural, the filaments of maize and other plants.^[4][11][12]
5. (zoology) Each of the barbs that branch from the shaft of a feather.^[4][11][2]
6. The rough edges of handmade paper; in engraving, the burr raised by the burin.^[4][11]
7. (colloquial) A bore, boredom: che barba!; something tedious.^[4][10][1]

Word family

• barbiere
• barbuto
• barbone
• barboncino
• barbetta
• barbata
• barbatella
• barbato
• barbicare
• abbarbicarsi
• barbazzale
• barboso
• sbarbare
• sbarbato
• sbarbatello
• barbaforte
• barbitonsore
• barbabietola

barba² uncle

Pronunciation

• /ˈbar.ba/^[1]

Forms

barba m (plural barbi)^[1]

Etymology

The northern word for an uncle is inherited from Medieval Latin barba (“paternal uncle”), recorded in the Lombard period, from 764 in the Codex diplomaticus Langobardiae and in Padua in 1077.^[1][2] Most scholars take it as Latin barba (“beard”) used for a respected older man, “the man with the beard”, a view the LEI holds with a Lombardic influence on the sense.^[2][8][9] The LEI and the TLIO reject a Germanic origin; a link with German Base (“aunt; cousin”) has been called absurd.^[2][8][6] The old variant barbano (Medieval Latin barbanus, 863) shows the Latin-Germanic declension in ⟨-a, -anis⟩.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Venetian chronicle of 1301;^[8][2][9] Dante uses barba “uncle” in the Paradiso, before 1321.^[8][2][9]

Semantic evolution

Commenting on Dante in 1481, Cristoforo Landino explained that barba “in the Lombard tongue means uncle”.^[2][9] The word also meant “friend” (Sacchetti) and an elderly man, and in Piedmont the Waldensian pastors were barbi, whence barbetti for the Waldensians (1779).^[2][4] It lives on as “uncle” in many northern dialects and was borrowed into Greek as Modern Greek μπάρμπας (bárbas).^[13][1]

Timeline

• 764 – Medieval Latin barba “uncle” is recorded in the Codex diplomaticus Langobardiae.^[1]
• 1077 – A Paduan document has barba “uncle”.^[2]
• 1301 – A Venetian chronicle has the first Italian record.^[8]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses barba “uncle”.^[2]
• 1779 – Giuseppe Baretti explains barbetti, the name of the Waldensians.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (northern, regional) uncle; by extension, an elderly man.^[4][10][11]
2. A Waldensian pastor; in Piedmont, any Waldensian.^[4][10][11]

Word family

• barbano
• barbetti