branca

Forms

branca f (plural branche)^[1] In the south forms with v- and f- are usual: Neapolitan vranca, Sicilian vranca and Sicilian franca.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin branca (“paw”), recorded from the 5th century in Augustine and in the land surveyors of the 6th, who name the paw of the bear and the wolf.^[3][2] The Late Latin word survives in Romanian brâncă (“paw, hand”), in central Romansh branca and in Italo-Romance.^[2][4] Elsewhere it means “branch”: French branche, Old Occitan branca, Catalan branca; Spanish branca is the tip of a horn and Sardinian franca a claw.^[2][5][4] The LEI concludes that the sense “branch” was already present in Vulgar Latin.^[2]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[3][5][6] DELI and GRADIT consider it perhaps Gaulish, from Gaulish *brankā (“arm”), which would have passed to “paw” in the language of hunters.^[3][7] Jud, cited by Meyer-Lübke, and Wiktionary start from Gaulish *vranca, related to Lithuanian ranka (“hand”), both going back to Proto-Indo-European *wrónkeh₂.^[4][1] Nocentini proposes instead Vulgar Latin *viranca (“green branch”), from the root of vireō (“to be green”), like frasca from *virasca; an intermediate *vranca would also explain the Sardinian form, and the first sense would have been “branch”, later extended to animals.^[5] DEI thinks of a link with bracchium (“arm”), and Devoto of a Mediterranean word.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century, which the LEI dates about 1250; the sense is the paw of an animal, above all of the lion.^[9][2] Medieval Latin has branchia in Salimbene (1281–1288).^[3] In Dante's Inferno Geryon due branche avea pilose infin l'ascelle (“had two paws, hairy up to the armpits”).^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

From the claw the word passed to the grasping human hand (Boccaccio, 1348–1353) and to the jaws of tools (14th century), and in Old Italian already to the branch of a tree and to a part of a topic or a virtue.^[3][9] Rome had Medieval Latin brancas of squash plants in 1186 and 1198, while the Italian sense “branch of a tree” is first dated 1546, in Alamanni.^[3] The GDLI holds that “branch” developed only in Gallo-Romance; the TLIO and the LEI record it in Italian as well.^[10][9][2]

The figurative “branch of knowledge” is dated 1842 in Cattaneo, who listed le branche dello scibile among the usages that astonished a visitor to Tuscany;^[3] DELI finds an older example in Bono Giamboni doubtful.^[3] DEI notes that French took branques “tentacles” from Italian in the 17th century and Turkish pranka as a nautical term.^[6] Through Ottoman Turkish the word reached pranga, and Albanian pranga and Macedonian пранга (pranga).^[1]

Timeline

• 5th century – Augustine uses Late Latin branca “paw”.^[2][3]
• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use branca.^[9]
• 1186 – Medieval Latin brancas of squash plants are recorded at Rome.^[3]
• 1281–1288 – Salimbene writes Latin branchia.^[3]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses branca for the clawed paw of Geryon.^[3]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for a grasping hand.^[3]
• 14th century – It names the gripping arms of a tool.^[3]
• 1546 – Alamanni uses it for the branch of a tree;^[3] Aretino has porre le branche “to seize”.^[3]
• 17th century – French borrows branques “tentacles”.^[6]
• 1842 – Cattaneo records le branche dello scibile.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A claw, the clawed paw of an animal.^[7][11][12]
2. (figurative, usually plural) A grasping hand; clutches, power: È finito nelle branche dei creditori.^[7][11][1]
3. Each of the two gripping arms of pincers, tongs and similar tools.^[7][11][12]
4. (botany) A main branch of a tree.^[7][11][12]
5. (figurative) A branch or field of a science or activity: La pediatria è una branca della medicina.^[7][11][12]
6. (anatomy) Each branch into which a nerve or a bundle of fibres divides.^[7][11][12]
7. (architecture) A flight of stairs.^[7][11][12]
8. (nautical) A length of rope with an eye at each end.^[7][11][12]

Word family

• branco
• brancare
• abbrancare
• brancata
• brancicare
• brancolare
• sbrancare
• brancorsina

Related words

• French branche

Usage notes

Branca orsina is another name of brancorsina, the acanthus.^[11][13] DEI records a 19th-century branca, a kind of cigar named after the minister Ascanio Branca, and the slang fratelli Branca for the carabinieri, a joke on abbrancare “to grab” and the Fratelli Branca company.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 7, 117
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 588
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 172