benna

Forms

benna f (plural benne)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin benna (“four-wheeled cart”), a word that Festus and Paul the Deacon give as the Gaulish name of a kind of vehicle.^[2][3][4] The Latin word is from Gaulish of Gaulish origin, as both the thing and its French outcomes confirm,^[2][1][5] and the LEI compares Welsh ben (“cart”).^[3]

The word lived on in the northern dialects, mostly for a basket or cart for carrying dung, and the building trade took it from them in the 20th century, not without French influence, since French had revived the word in the same way.^[2][5][6] The same Latin word is French banne (“basket”) and French benne (“tipping wagon”),^[5] Friulian bène (“large basket”)^[3] and Romansh benna (“dung sledge”).^[7] A blend with Latin canistrum (“basket”) gave Occitan banasta, Catalan banasta and Spanish banasta.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin documents use it for a basket and a measure: bennas duas raparum, “two baskets of turnips”, at Arosio in 1248, and bena, a wicker basket and measure, at Verona in 1319.^[2][4] The first Italian record is in Florio's dictionary of 1598, in the dialect sense of a basket or cart for carrying dung.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In 1565 A. Gallo glossed benaccia as the vessel in which grapes are carried to the vats, and in Piedmont the word still names a vat or tub for grapes.^[2][7][3] D'Alberti (1797) defined it as a treggia, a sledge.^[2] In the Tuscan mountains it is a rough wicker cart, also called treggia;^[8][9] Tommaseo adds that such carts were used for travelling too, and that people who travelled together in one were called combennoni.^[8][9] In the Pistoia mountains the word has the form benda.^[10][7]

The technical sense, the bucket of a crane, is recorded from 1930.^[2] Writers soon used it: Ojetti describes the four teeth of an excavator filling the benna with clods, stones and soil.^[11]

Timeline

• 1248 – Medieval Latin bennas is recorded at Arosio.^[2]
• 1319 – Medieval Latin bena, a wicker basket and a measure, is recorded at Verona.^[2][4]
• 1364 – Benna, a measure, is recorded at Argenta.^[2]
• 1565 – A. Gallo glosses benaccia, a vessel for carrying grapes.^[2]
• 1598 – Florio records benna.^[2][6]
• 1797 – D'Alberti defines it as a sledge.^[2]
• 1878 – Benna is recorded for a wooden tub for carrying or treading grapes.^[3]
• 1930 – The sense “crane bucket” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (engineering) A grab or bucket hung from a crane or excavator, with two jaws or an opening bottom, for lifting, carrying and dumping loose material: la benna rovesciò la ghiaia nel camion.^{[12][13][8][14]}
2. (regional, Tuscany) A rough sledge or wicker cart for mountain tracks; same as treggia.^{[12][13][8][4]}
3. (nautical) A pair of tongs worked from the surface to recover objects from the sea bed.^[15]

Related words

• Latin benna
• French benne

Usage notes

Common technical terms are benna mordente, a grab with two jaws, and escavatore a benna.^[6][14] A line of the Dittamondo often cited for benna (vendero e gonna e benna) is read by DELI, after Nannucci, as benda “band”, not as this word.^[2]

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 m n o p 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 e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 5, 1171
4. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 1, 942
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 487
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 176
12. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli