bitume

Forms

bitume m (usually uncountable, plural bitumi)^[1] The old form bitumine comes from the Latin oblique stem, and the northern Old Italian bitum.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin bitūmen (“pitch, asphalt”).^[4][5][1][6] The older variant bitumine reflects the Latin accusative ⟨bitūminem⟩.^[3][5] The LEI treats the Italian word beside the inherited Romance forms, which partly require a base Vulgar Latin *bittūmen: Old French betun (from about 1170), Occitan betum, Catalan bitum, Spanish betún and Portuguese betume.^[7][8] Spoken Latin also had butumen, condemned by the Appendix Probi, and dialect forms such as Medieval Latin butumatum in 13th-century statutes of Biella continue it.^[9][7] The word béton (“concrete”) in French comes from the same Latin word.^[8][1]

Pliny says that the Gauls extracted bitumen from the birch, and DELI, Nocentini and Devoto take the Latin word as a Gaulish one related to Latin betulla (“birch”).^[9][8][10] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *gʷet-u- (“pitch, resin”), which Latin must have borrowed from a Sabellic or Celtic language where ⟨*gʷ⟩ became ⟨b⟩.^[11][1] Its cognates include Sanskrit जतु (játu, “lac, gum”) and Old English cwidu (“mastic”), the ancestor of English cud.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni's translation of Vegetius, written before 1292, in the form bitumine.^[2][6] There it is an incendiary, wrapped in oil with tow and sulphur.^[2][6] Giordano da Pisa (1305–1306) says that bitumen is stronger than any glue.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used bitume for an oily, flammable substance used as a weapon or for its waterproofing.^[2] In the 14th century it also named a kind of clay (Crescenzi, 1320) and a cement (Boccaccio, about 1342).^[7] Bituminoso was taken from Latin bituminōsus and is recorded about 1367 in Fazio degli Uberti, and the verb bitumare dates from the 14th century.^[9][8]

Bitumen was long used mainly to waterproof ships, walls and floors.^[7] From 1889 the nautical dictionaries record it as the hot mixture of tar, sulphur, tallow and fish oil spread on wooden hulls.^[7][12] Today its chief use is road paving, and the 20th century added bitumatura (1952) and the paving machine bitumatrice (1955).^[7][9]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni writes bitumine.^[2][9]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses bitume.^[9][7]
• 1320 – Crescenzi's translation uses bitume for a kind of clay.^[7]
• About 1367 – Bituminoso appears in Fazio degli Uberti.^[9]
• 1889 – Guglielmotti records the nautical sense.^[7]
• 1952 – Bitumatura is recorded.^[9]
• 1955 – Bitumatrice is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. bitumen: a black solid or semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons, from natural deposits, asphalt rocks or the residues of petroleum distillation, used for paving roads and for waterproofing.^[3][13][14]
2. A mixture of hydrocarbons and oily substances extracted from coal with solvents.^[3][12]
3. (nautical) A mixture of tar, sulphur and tallow spread hot on the hulls of wooden boats to protect them.^[3][13][5]

Word family

• bitumare
• bitumatrice
• bitumatura
• bituminoso
• imbitumare

Related words

• asfalto
• French béton
• Latin bitumen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
5. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
8. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse