brado

Forms

brado (feminine brada, masculine plural bradi, feminine plural brade)^[1] Older texts also have Old Italian brando.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[3][4][2] Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and the Treccani Vocabolario take it as a variant of bravo in its old sense “wild”: that word is inherited from Latin barbarus (“foreign; wild”), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign”).^[5][6][7][1] Prati first saw it as a variant of bravo, and DELI finds this confirmed by the use of the word in the 15th-century Cantari di Rinaldo da Monte Albano; at Cividale del Friuli in 1422 the racehorses called barberi were called bravi.^[3][8] The LEI explains the popular outcome of the Latin adjective from a syncopated form, changed by dissimilation and metathesis; this is the source of Old Occitan brau and Spanish bravo (“wild, untamed”), and Meyer-Lübke saw a dissimilated form in the adjective as used of wild oxen.^[9][10]

Devoto, Sabatini–Coletti, the Zingarelli and Gabrielli instead derive it from Lombardic braida (“open plain”), in Medieval Latin from the 8th century, crossed with bravo; the GDLI thinks of the plain where horses lived free.^{[11][12][13][14][15][3]} The DEI compared the old adjective braido (“quick, lively”) of the 13th century.^[3][16]

The Latin word comes from Greek, where it imitates the speech of foreigners.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Microzibaldone pisano, from the turn of the 14th century, in the sense “untamed, wild”.^[2] About 1325 an Italian Aesop speaks of two oxen, one brado and the other tamed.^[3][4][17]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word could also be a noun, and it was said of people lacking good feelings towards others, fierce or cruel.^[2] Around 1420 the Sienese Simone Serdini used brado for bravo.^[9] Tommaseo records it for cattle under three years old, and in Tuscany for domestic animals that graze in the open, half wild, and are not kept in stalls.^[17]

D'Annunzio writes of catching with a lasso the puledra brada, the wild filly.^[15] The phrase pascolo brado is recorded in 1950, the figurative sense “brutal, primitive” in 1938, and allo stato brado in 1953.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – The Microzibaldone pisano uses the word.^[2]
• c. 1325 – An Italian Aesop uses brado of an ox.^[3][4]
• c. 1420 – Simone Serdini uses brado for bravo.^[9]
• 1422 – At Cividale del Friuli the barberi are called bravi.^[3]
• 1938 – The figurative sense “brutal, primitive” is recorded.^[3]
• 1950 – Pascolo brado is recorded in the DEI.^[3]
• 1953 – Allo stato brado is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of animals, especially cattle and horses: living free, untamed and half wild: una mandria di puledri bradi.^[4][6][13]
2. Of stock-raising: done wholly in the open, the animals finding their own food on pasture.^[4][6][7]
3. (figurative) Free of rules and social conventions; rough, primitive: dopo anni di vita brada in montagna.^[4][6][12]

Word family

• semibrado

Related words

• bravo
• barbaro
• Latin barbarus

Usage notes

Allo stato brado (in the wild state) is used both of animals and, figuratively, of people who live without constraint or in a rough, unsociable way.^[4][6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 171
9. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 4, 1253
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 350
16. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 586
17. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 1, 1030