bronco

bronco¹ bronchus

Pronunciation

• /ˈbron.ko/^[1]

Forms

bronco m (plural bronchi)^[1]

Etymology

The anatomical word is learned: it is borrowed from Late Latin bronchus, which Caelius Aurelianus used in the 5th century beside the plural bronchia, after Ancient Greek βρόγχος (brónkhos, “windpipe, throat”) and βρόγχια (brónkhia, “the bronchi”).^[2][1][3] Nocentini and GRADIT start from the Late Latin plural bronchia and the Greek diminutive βρόγχιον (brónkhion), from which the Italian singular was drawn.^[4][5] The Greek word is of unclear origin.^[2][6] The same learned word is French bronche and Spanish bronquio.^[4]

Bronchitis and the compounds in bronco- spread through the scientific language of Europe at the beginning of the 19th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in G. A. Della Croce, 1574, for the branches of the airways from the windpipe to their last ramifications.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its anatomical sense, mostly in the plural bronchi.^[3][6] Redi used it in his anatomical observations.^[3] Derivatives followed with modern medicine: bronchiale (before 1758), bronchite (1829) and bronchiolo (1935).^[2]

Timeline

• 1574 – G. A. Della Croce uses bronco in anatomy.^[2]
• Before 1758 – Bronchiale is recorded.^[2]
• 1829 – Bronchite is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy, usually plural) A bronchus: either of the two tubes into which the trachea divides, branching into the lungs, or any of their branches.^[5][7][6]

Word family

• bronchiale
• bronchiolo
• bronchite
• bronchitico
• broncopolmonite
• broncopolmonare
• broncografia

bronco² thorny branch

Pronunciation

• /ˈbron.ko/^[1]

Forms

bronco m (plural bronchi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the knotty branch is of unclear origin.^[2][8] DELI suggests, with doubts about the meaning, that it is inherited from Late Latin brunchus, a variant of Latin broccus (“with projecting teeth”), which survives in Sardinian bruncu.^[2] A Latin gloss explains brunchus as “snout”, and Devoto, Devoto–Oli and Treccani take this sense as the starting point.^[9][7][10] Nocentini sees in broncus a variant of broccus found in the manuscripts, meaning first “with projecting teeth” and then “a pointed, projecting thing”, and compares Old French bronche (“trunk”), Old Occitan bronc (“knot, projection”) and Spanish bronco (“rough”).^[4]

Meyer-Lübke, followed by Sabatini–Coletti, Zingarelli and the GDLI, set up Vulgar Latin *bruncus (“block of wood”), a blend of broccus and Latin truncus (“trunk”).^{[11][12][6][3]} The LEI places it in a pre-Romance family of words for “what sprouts, what projects”, a nasalized variant of the family of brocco.^[13][14] Zaccaria derived it from Old High German brocco (“broken piece”).^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), where voices seem to come from among the bronchi, thorny bushes.^[2][14][3]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio's Decameron has a rope tied to a strong bronco growing at the mouth of a shaft, and the vernacular Crescenzi uses it for a shrub.^[3][16] The augmentative broncone, a large branch bristling with stumps, is recorded before 1375 in Boccaccio.^[2] In the dialects the word also means a thorn, a shoot, or something stunted and rough.^[4]

Today the word is literary; in zoology it is also a branch of a deer's antlers.^[6][12][17]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante's Inferno has bronchi.^[2][14]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses broncone.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A bare, knotty and thorny branch; a thorny bush.^[5][7][6]
2. (zoology) A tine, a branch of a deer's antlers.^[6][12][17]

Word family

• broncone