barbaresco

barbaresco¹ red wine

Pronunciation

• /bar.baˈres.ko/^[1]

Forms

barbaresco m (plural barbareschi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the red wine is from Italian Barbaresco, a village near Alba in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont, where the wine is made and which has been a centre of viticulture for centuries.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} DELI notes that the place name itself arose in contrast to romano (“Roman”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

According to the LEI, the wine was called nebbiolo di Barbaresco until 1896, although handwritten labels with the name barbaresco alone are known from at least 1870.^[2] The oenologist D. Cavazza made the present name current from about 1894.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries record the common noun from the late 19th and early 20th century: Zingarelli dates it 1896, the LEI and GRADIT 1913 (Garollo), and DELI 1927 (Panzini's dictionary).^[5][2][4][3] In the Ligurian of Sanremo it is Ligurian barbarescu, and the grape that makes the wine is called üga barbaresca.^[2]

Timeline

• 1870 – Handwritten wine labels bear the name barbaresco.^[2]
• About 1894 – D. Cavazza brings the present name into use.^[2]
• 1896 – Zingarelli's first date for the noun.^[5]
• 1913 – The noun is in Garollo's dictionary.^[2][4]
• 1927 – Panzini's dictionary records it.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Barbaresco: a fine, dry red wine of Piedmont made from the nebbiolo grape, garnet red with orange glints and a scent recalling violets.^{[4][5][7][6][2]}

barbaresco² of Barbary

Pronunciation

• /bar.baˈres.ko/^[1]

Forms

barbaresco (feminine barbaresca, masculine plural barbareschi, feminine plural barbaresche)^[1] Old Italian forms include barberesco and barbarescho.^[8] Wiktionary gives the variants barberesco and berberesco.^[1]

Etymology

The word for “of Barbary” is formed from Italian Barbaria + -esco, the first part being an old variant of Barberia, the former name of the Mediterranean coast of North Africa.^{[4][8][9][10][1]} The TLIO derives Old Italian barbaria from barbaro.^[8] Nocentini explains the name of the region from the popular pronunciation of Arabic بربر (Barbar), which corresponds to Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, non-Greek”) and which the Arabs used first for the native peoples of Egypt and then for those of North Africa.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Pisan document of 1298, where the adjective means “coming from Barbary”.^[8][5] DELI quotes cascio barbaresco “Barbary cheese” from a Pisan account book of about 1299.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective named goods and people from Barbary: Balducci Pegolotti lists pelli d'agnelline barbaresche, skins of Barbary lambs.^[8][12] Used as a noun, it named the language spoken in Barbary, as in Boccaccio's Decameron: “il qual molto bene sapeva il barbaresco” (“who knew the Barbary tongue very well”).^[8][12][4] By extension it could mean any foreigner from lands thought savage.^[8]

The noun for the Barbary horse is dated by DELI from the 15th century as barberesco (Piovano Arlotto) and before 1502 as barbaresco (Cammelli), and Ariosto writes of keeping barbareschi in the stable.^[3][4] It also came to mean the keeper of such horses.^[9][10] The stati barbareschi were the Muslim states of the North African coast from the 16th to the 19th century, given to privateering, which made barbaresco the usual word for the corsairs.^[10][4]

French borrowed the word as French barbaresque, as a plural noun in 1752 and as an adjective in 1798.^[13]

Timeline

• 1298 – First record, in a Pisan document.^[8][5]
• About 1299 – Cascio barbaresco in a Pisan account book.^[3]
• 15th century – Barberesco names the Barbary horse.^[3]
• Before 1502 – The noun barbaresco in Cammelli.^[3]
• 1752 – French barbaresques is first recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of Barbary, the historical region of North Africa between Morocco and Libya: le coste barbaresche;^{[4][14][5][10]} stati barbareschi, the Barbary States.^{[4][14][5][10]}

Noun

1. (historical) An inhabitant or native of Barbary; by extension, a Saracen or a Barbary corsair.^{[4][14][5][10]}
2. (literary) A Barb, a horse of the Berber breed.^{[4][14][5][10]}
3. A keeper of Barbary horses.^[9][10]
4. The Berber language.^[4][8]

barbaresco³ barbaric

Pronunciation

• /bar.baˈres.ko/^[1]

Forms

barbaresco (feminine barbaresca, masculine plural barbareschi, feminine plural barbaresche)^[1]

Etymology

The word for “barbaric” is formed from Italian barbaro + -esco.^{[4][14][9][5][10][12][1]} The base word comes from Latin barbarus, from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, non-Greek”), an expressive word for the stammering speech of foreigners.^[11][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Petrarch, who died in 1374: “E popoli altri barbareschi e strani” (“and other peoples, barbarous and strange”).^{[3][4][14][12]}

Semantic evolution

Ariosto, Tasso, Bruno and Marino used the word for what is barbarous, infidel or strange.^[12] DEI notes that it was taken up again after Ariosto and Salvini by D'Annunzio.^[15] Tommaseo describes it as wider in sense than barberesco, which was said of people and things from Barbary, and records architettura barbaresca for building in the Saracen manner.^[16]

French borrowed the word as French barbaresque in this sense in 1534.^[13][15]

Timeline

• Before 1374 – Petrarch writes barbareschi “barbarous”.^[3][4]
• 1534 – French barbaresque “barbaric” is first recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary) Of or like the barbarians, especially in customs; barbaric.^{[4][14][9][5][10][17]}