barbabietola

Forms

barbabietola f (plural barbabietole)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian barba (“beard”) + bietola (“chard”), as Wiktionary, Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI analyse it.^[1][2][3] DELI, Nocentini, GRADIT and Zingarelli give a fuller history: the Latin phrase herba beta, from Latin herba (“plant, herb”) and bēta (“beet”), was reshaped under the influence of the word for “beard”, and Nocentini adds a diminutive suffix, as in the word for chard.^[4][5][6][7] Gabrielli explains the beard by the long rootlets of the plant.^[8] Devoto sees a second crossing in the last part of the word, with blitum, the name of another plant.^[9]

DEI suggests that the word for “beard” was laid over the Latin phrase in the 17th century, through an intermediate phrase meaning “beard of beet”.^[10] It calls the name typically Tuscan, spreading into Emilia and, in the literary form, as far as Carnia in Friuli, while the semi-learned Lombard erbete and Emilian arbet continue the Latin phrase herba beta with haplology.^[10]

The word for chard is a diminutive of bieta, whose diphthong DELI explains by the influence of that other plant name.^[4] The ancients considered the Latin name of the beet a Celtic word.^[5] For the Latin word for “plant” de Vaan finds no acceptable etymology.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Targioni Tozzetti, 1759, for the plant and its root: “Altre piante ci somministrano alimenti o condimenti colle loro radiche, e sono rape, ramolacci, carote, pastinache, barbabietole” (“other plants give us food or seasoning with their roots: turnips, radishes, carrots, parsnips, beetroots”).^[4][3][12]

Semantic evolution

The LEI records the word first for the red beet and its root.^[12] From 1797 it also names the fodder beet and the sugar beet.^[12] In 1802 Targioni Tozzetti still wrote it as two words, barba bietola.^[12] DELI connects the spread of the name with the use of the plant for making sugar.^[4] Guerrazzi, before 1873, used it figuratively for something insipid and senseless.^[4]

The dialects of northern and central Italy took up the word in local shapes, from Ligurian and Piedmontese to Ladin and Tuscan.^[12] Compounds of the sugar-beet industry followed, such as bieticultura (1941) and bieticoltore (1955).^[4]

Timeline

• 1759 – Targioni Tozzetti uses barbabietole.^[4][12]
• 1797 – The word is used for the fodder and sugar beet.^[12]
• 1802 – Targioni Tozzetti writes barba bietola.^[12]
• Before 1873 – Guerrazzi uses the word figuratively.^[4]
• 1941 – Bieticultura is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The beet (Beta vulgaris), a plant of the goosefoot family with large leaves and a thick fleshy root, grown in many varieties for food, fodder and sugar: barbabietola da zucchero (sugar beet).^{[6][13][7][1]}
2. The edible dark red root of the garden beet, beetroot.^[6][2][8][1]

Word family

• barbabietola da zucchero

Related words

• bietola
• bieta
• barba
• Latin beta

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 430
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. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 5, 1345
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier