bordo

Forms

bordo m (plural bordi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French bord (1112), from Frankish *bord (“side of a ship; edge”), which Nocentini compares with Dutch boord.^[2][3][4] DELI notes that French “bord” has all the senses of the Italian word, earlier, and that Italian lexicographers agree on its priority;^[5][6][7] Zaccaria held instead that the word came from Spanish bordo, and Prati leaves the choice between Spanish and French open.^[5][6][7]

DELI keeps the Frankish word for the side of a ship apart from a Frankish “*bord” “plank”, recorded in the Latin of the glosses as Medieval Latin bordum in the 10th century, which it thinks only looks the same.^[5] Devoto–Oli, Gabrielli and Wiktionary derive “bordo” from this “plank, board” word, which Wiktionary takes back to Proto-Germanic *burdą (“board; table”).^{[8][9][1][10]} The same word is Old Occitan bord, Catalan bord and Portuguese bordo;^[11][2] Spanish borde “edge” is from French.^[11][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Fatti di Cesare, a Sienese text of the late 13th century, for the side of a ship: a soldier “gittò la mano al bordo de la nave romana per lanciarsi a forza dentro” (“put his hand on the side of the Roman ship to force his way aboard”).^[12][13][5]

Semantic evolution

From the ship's side the word came to mean the ship itself, in virare di bordo “to go about” (1813), a calque of French virer de bord, and andare or salire a bordo “to go aboard” (1797).^[5] A bordo di was applied to the interior of other vehicles from Lorenzo Magalotti (before 1712), and now to cars and aircraft.^[5][3] The general sense “edge, rim” is recorded in 1648, and that of a fabric trimming in 1853.^[5]

Vascello d'alto bordo, a ship with high sides, is in Giovan Battista Fagiuoli in 1737; the figurative d'alto bordo “of high social standing” followed, in Milanese scior d'alto bordo by 1839 and in Italian in 1853.^[5] Virare di bordo also came to mean changing course or one's mind, and Tommaseo records girare di bordo for slipping away.^[5][14][15] Turkish borda is a borrowing from Italian.^[1]

Timeline

• 1112 – Old French bord is recorded.^[3]
• Late 13th century – Bordo “side of a ship” appears in the Fatti di Cesare.^[12][5]
• 1648 – Famiano Strada uses it for “edge, rim”.^[5]
• Before 1712 – Magalotti uses a bordo for the inside of a means of transport.^[5]
• 1737 – Vascello d'alto bordo is recorded.^[5]
• 1797 – Andare a bordo “to go aboard” is recorded.^[5]
• 1813 – Virare di bordo appears in Stratico's naval dictionary.^[5]
• 1853 – D'alto bordo “of high standing” and bordo “trimming” are recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) The side of a boat or ship, especially the part above the water.^[3][8][4]
2. By extension, the inside of a ship or of another vehicle, a bordo: aboard: Sono saliti a bordo all'ultimo momento.^[3][4][9]
3. An edge, rim or margin: Il gatto camminava sul bordo del tetto.^[3][4][14]
4. A trimming or border sewn onto clothes, linen or curtains.^[3][4][14]
5. (geometry) The boundary of a plane or curved surface.^[3][9]
6. (astronomy) The outer edge of the disc of a star or planet.^[3]
7. (sailing) A tack: each stretch sailed with the wind on the same side when beating to windward.^[3][4][14]

Word family

• bordare
• bordata
• bordatura
• bordeggiare
• bordino
• bordura
• abbordare
• abbordaggio
• debordare
• trasbordare
• trasbordo

Related words

• French bord
• Dutch boord

Usage notes

D'alto bordo is used of people of high standing, often ironically, and of expensive prostitutes.^[8][15][9] An old bordo was a kind of striped cloth, used for mattresses, recorded in a Sienese document of 1298;^[12][13][7] DEI derives it from bordare “to hem”, the GDLI likewise, and Prati from Arabic بُرْد (burd, “striped cloak”).^[12][13][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
7. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 162
8. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana