bruco

Forms

bruco m (plural bruchi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin brūchus (“wingless locust”), a late and rare Latin word, recorded from Prudentius in the 4th century, which is from Ancient Greek βροῦκος (broûkos) or βροῦχος (broûkhos), a kind of locust without wings.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} DEI and Devoto held that the Greek word spread into Latin from the Greek of Taranto, because Hesychius ascribes the form to the Tarentines.^[7][8][2] Alessio supposed a southern regional Latin diminutive Vulgar Latin *brūculus spread from there, but the LEI finds this unlikely, since the Tuscan and central Italian forms run parallel to the southern ones.^[5]

The sense “caterpillar” is not that of the Greek or Latin word.^[2][3] The native word for the caterpillar was Latin ērūca, with a variant ūrūca in the glosses, and it is continued as Emilian ruga and Venetian ruga in much of northern Italy and as Occitan oruga and Spanish oruga.^[3][2][9] Because the Greek loan is late and rare while the native word lives on across Romance, Nocentini concludes that the loan and the native noun, close in sound and sense, merged.^[3] DELI, DEI and the GDLI likewise put the new sense down to the native Latin word, and the GDLI notes that old Italian translations render the Latin noun with this word.^[2][7][4] The old sense “grasshopper” is kept in Apulia and the south, while “larva of a butterfly” is an innovation of central and northern Italy.^[5]

Outside Italy the word survives only in Ibero-Romance: Spanish brugo “aphid” (first half of the 15th century) and burgo in Old Portuguese (c. 1400).^[5][6] De Vaan analyses the native Latin noun as ēr (“hedgehog”) with a suffix taken from verrūca (“wart”), the caterpillar being named for its rough back.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the verse of Ugolino Buzzola, an Emilian text of the second half of the 13th century, and its first sense is the larva of an insect, or a worm.^[11] DELI's first date is the Tuscan translation of Crescenzi's treatise on agriculture (c. 1350), with the sense “caterpillar”: Alcuna volta nelle vigne entrano bruchi, che ogni verdezza rodono (“sometimes caterpillars get into the vineyards and gnaw away all that is green”).^[2][4][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Tuscan also used the word for the grasshopper or locust, as in Cavalca (before 1342) and the Bible translations of the late 14th century, a sense Italian dictionaries still recorded in 1841.^[5] Old Italian used it figuratively for the devil, and as an adjective for someone thin or poor.^[11] That adjective survives in Tuscan nudo bruco and nudo e bruco, “penniless”, which Tommaseo explains as poorer than ignudo nato, like a plant stripped by caterpillars.^[12][13][14] Tuscan also has the form brucio, taken from the plural bruci.^[14][15][7]

The verb brucare “to strip leaves” is from the 14th century, and an editor's note to the Malmantile (1688) derives it from bruco.^[2] From the likeness to a caterpillar, Tuscan bookbinders called bruco the little cylinder of silk or cloth to which the ribbon markers of a missal are sewn.^[4] In zoology the word also names the seed beetles of the genus Bruchus, whose larvae eat the seeds of peas, lentils and beans.^[14][16]

Timeline

• 4th century – Prudentius uses Late Latin brucus for a kind of locust.^[4][6]
• Second half of the 13th century – bruco appears in the verse of Ugolino Buzzola.^[11]
• Before 1342 – Pisan bruchi “grasshoppers” in Cavalca.^[5]
• c. 1350 – The Crescenzi translation uses bruchi for caterpillars in vineyards.^[2]
• 14th century – The verb brucare is first recorded.^[2][3]
• 1688 – The notes to the Malmantile derive brucare from bruco.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A caterpillar, the larva of a butterfly or moth: by extension, any insect larva, and also a worm: Un bruco verde mangiava le foglie dell'insalata.^{[13][17][18][16]}
2. (zoology) A seed beetle of the genus Bruchus, whose larvae damage the seeds of legumes: bruco del pisello.^[13][16][14]
3. (dated) A small cylinder of silk, cloth or metal to which the ribbon bookmarks of a missal are attached.^[13][16][4]

Adjective

1. (Tuscan) Very poor, destitute, in the phrases nudo bruco and nudo e bruco.^{[13][17][16][14]}

Word family

• brucare
• brucatura
• brucolino

Related words

• brugo
• Latin ērūca

Usage notes

An obsolete bruco “heather, thorny scrub”, used by P. Verri, is another word: it is the northern brugo, from a Gallo-Latin noun for heather.^[4][19][15] The plural is bruchi;^[12] Tommaseo also gives bruci.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 400
5. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 7, 787
6. ^ a b c Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 614
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 182
16. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ 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
18. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
19. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 7, 798