bora

Forms

bora f (plural bore)^[1] Dialect forms include Venetian bora in Venice and Trieste, buora in Venice and Ferrara and Emilian bura in Bologna, meaning “north wind”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin borea (“north wind”), from Ancient Greek βορέας (boréas), the Greek name of the north wind, of uncertain origin.^[4][5][1][6] Nocentini starts from Late Latin borra, a variant of the Latin word matching the Greek variant βορρᾶς (borrâs).^[7] The learned form of the same word is borea, and the Latin word also lies behind burrasca, buriana and boria.^[7][4][3]

The word is mostly called Venetian or Triestine, and the modern Italian word is usually traced to Trieste.^{[8][9][10][4]} Cortelazzo and Marcato say it spread into Italian from the Julian area in the 19th century.^[11] DELI points out that the word is found in many Italian dialects, not only in Trieste.^[4] DEI cites boria in the Cartulary of Teramo (894) and calls the word pan-Romance.^[12] Nocentini compares Romanian boară (“breeze”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO records bora in Jacopo della Lana's Bolognese commentary on Dante's Inferno (1324–1328), and derives it from the Latin name of the north wind.^[13] A document from the Este court of 1492 has buora for a strong wind.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word was used in poetry for the north, the direction the wind blows from: Annibal Caro's Eneide has Venne da Bora un'onda (“from the north came a wave”).^[14][12] Boiardo used Bora for Borea as a Latinism.^[4]

The modern sense, the cold, dry and violent north-easterly wind of the Adriatic, especially at Trieste, entered Italian from the regional speech in the 19th century: an English text of 1817 has borra, and the Tommaseo–Bellini dictionary has bora in 1865.^[4][11] Writers from Trieste and the north-east made it a literary word: Svevo writes Fuori soffiava muggendo e ululando la bora (“outside the bora was blowing, roaring and howling”), and Saba and Quarantotti Gambini use it too.^[15] Meteorologists distinguish a bora chiara with clear skies from a bora scura with cloud, rain or snow.^[16][17]

English has bora from 1817, French from 1818 (borra 1831), and German from 1839.^[18]

Timeline

• 894 – Boria appears in the Cartulary of Teramo.^[12]
• 1324–1328 – Jacopo della Lana uses bora in his commentary on the Inferno.^[13]
• 1492 – Buora, “strong wind”, is recorded in an Este document.^[4]
• 1817 – Borra appears in an English text by W. A. Cadell;^[4][18] English bora dates from the same year.^[4][18]
• 1818 – French bora is first recorded.^[18]
• 1839 – German Bora is first recorded.^[18]
• 1865 – The Tommaseo–Bellini dictionary has bora.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (meteorology) The bora: a cold, dry north-easterly or east-north-easterly wind that blows in violent gusts from the Balkans across the Adriatic, especially along the coasts of Istria, Dalmatia and the Kvarner and at Trieste: Stanotte la bora ha rotto due finestre.^{[5][8][16][10]}
2. (poetic) The north.^[6][14]

Word family

• borino

Related words

• borea
• boreale
• burrasca
• buriana

Usage notes

The diminutive borino names a lighter bora.^[16][10] GRADIT also has a separate bora, a variant of borra (coarse wool or flock).^[5] Pulci's Morgante names a snake bora, perhaps a mistake for boa.^[19][14] DELI calls its identification with the wind false.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 161
3. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET, p. 135
12. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 561
13. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 307
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
18. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
19. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca