bava

Forms

bava f (plural bave)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *baba (“slobber”), an expressive word of children's speech.^[2][3][4][1] Nocentini sees in it an imitation of infant babbling and of the movement of the lips, as in babbeo.^[3] The DÉRom reconstructs the Proto-Romance noun from every branch except Dalmatian and calls it a word of the language adults use with children, whose two lip sounds point to the mouth from which the slobber comes; it has no counterpart in the written Latin of antiquity.^[5] The LEI thinks it probably existed in spoken Latin, citing the personal name Baba in Seneca.^[6] The word is recorded as Medieval Latin bava in the Middle Ages.^[7]

The word is French bave (Old French beve), Occitan bava, Catalan bava, Spanish baba, Portuguese baba, Friulian bave, Sardinian bua and the plural Romanian bale.^[3][8][6] The LEI notes that it is often hard to tell its outcomes from those of the onomatopoeic stem ⟨bab(b)-⟩.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), where Lucifer's three chins drip pianto e sanguinosa bava (“tears and bloody slobber”).^[2][9][10] The sense is the viscous, foamy fluid that comes from the mouth of animals and of people in a particular bodily or mental state.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

The TLIO already has bava for the fluid the silkworm spins and for silk waste;^[9][2] DELI dates the silk thread round the cocoon to 1340, in Pegolotti.^[9][2] Bava di vento, a light breath of wind over a calm sea, appears in 1535 in Annibal Caro, and the burr of cast metal before 1574 in Vasari.^[2] Pisani derived the related bavella, the outer silk of the cocoon, from Latin malvella, but DELI sees no need to separate it from bava.^[2]

A Tuscan proverb in Tommaseo says È meglio star sotto barba che sotto bava (“better to serve a bearded man than a drooling one”, a grown man rather than a child).^[11] Avere la bava alla bocca means to be furious; in the north it can also mean to long for something.^[12][13] The modern technical senses are the filament of artificial fibre, the fishing leader and the flash on castings.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses bava in the Inferno.^[2]
• Before 1332 – Bavoso “covered in slobber” is first recorded.^[2]
• 1340 – Pegolotti uses bava for the silk thread of the cocoon.^[2]
• First half of the 14th century – Bavaglio “bib” is first recorded.^[3]
• 1535 – Annibal Caro writes bava di vento.^[2]
• Before 1574 – Vasari uses bava for the burr of cast metal.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. drool, slobber: viscous saliva running from the mouth of babies, old people or sick animals.^[14][15][4]
2. The slime of snails and other molluscs.^[14][15][16]
3. (zoology) The silk filament spun by the silkworm.^[14][15][12]
4. (textiles) A continuous filament of artificial fibre extruded from a spinneret.^[14][15]
5. (metallurgy) A burr or flash on a cast or machined piece.^[14][15][13]
6. A smear of paint.^[14][4]
7. (fishing) The leader to which the hook is tied.^[14][15][13]
8. Foam left by the waves on the shore.^[14][15][17]
9. (in bava di vento) A light breath of wind, force 1 on the Beaufort scale.^[15][13][4]

Word family

• bavoso
• bavaglio
• bavaglino
• imbavagliare
• bavetta
• bavella
• sbavare
• sbavatura
• imbavare

Related words

• babbeo
• French bave
• Spanish baba

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
6. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 4, 1
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 468
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana