bruma

Forms

bruma f (plural brume)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin brūma (“winter solstice; winter”).^[2][3][1] The Latin word is a contraction of *brevima “shortest (day)”, a superlative of Latin brevis (“short”), and Varro already explained it so.^[2][4][3][5] The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year.^[6][1]

DÉRom reconstructs the Proto-Romance word with the senses winter, hoarfrost and fog, found in every branch except Dalmatian, Sardinian and Romansh.^[7] The same word is French brume, Occitan bruma, Catalan broma, Spanish bruma, Portuguese bruma and Romanian brumă (“hoarfrost”), and Friulian brume keeps the sense “winter”.^[2][8][9] In the north-west of Italy the form ⟨brima⟩ shows the influence of Latin pruina (“hoarfrost”).^[9]

The modern sense “mist” is due to the French word (from 1562), according to DELI, Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti.^[4][10][11] The LEI notes that the sense “fog” is found across Italian, Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance dialects, so the change may already have happened in Vulgar Latin.^[9] Zingarelli, DEI and GDLI call the word learned, and the LEI treats the sense “winter solstice” as a 16th-century Latinism.^{[12][13][14][9]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the 13th-century Lombard Disputatio roxe et viole, where the word means the winter season of short, cold days.^[15] It appears in Cortona in 1318 and in Boccaccio about 1340.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian bruma was winter, and especially December and the winter solstice.^[15] Petrarch speaks of a fire that burns him a la più algente bruma (in the coldest winter), and Bembo writes that the fleet left poco avanti la bruma (shortly before midwinter).^[16][17] In northern dialects it came to mean autumn, a cold autumn wind and hoarfrost, and il mese di bruma is December.^[9] Brumale “wintry” is recorded about 1350 in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[4]

The sense “mist” enters with Gioberti in 1843, who writes of northerners tired of their brume perpetue.^[4][14] Carducci, Verga and Pascoli made it a literary word for fog and haze.^[14] Brumoso is recorded in 1723 according to Nocentini, and in Carducci (1883) according to DELI.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 13th century – Bruma “winter” appears in the Lombard Disputatio roxe et viole.^[15]
• 1318 – Bruma is recorded at Cortona.^[9]
• About 1350 – Brumale appears in the translation of Crescenzi.^[4]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch uses bruma for the depth of winter.^[3]
• 1723 – Brumoso is recorded.^[2]
• 1843 – Gioberti uses bruma for mist.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) Light mist, haze: Le colline sparivano nella bruma della sera.^[3][10][12]
2. (literary, uncommon) The depth of winter; the winter solstice.^[3][10][12]

Word family

• brumale
• brumoso
• imbrumare

Related words

• breve
• French brume
• Latin bruma

Usage notes

A separate bruma (from 1614) is the shipworm, the mollusc of the genus Teredo that bores into the submerged timber of ships, and by extension any organism that grows on submerged hulls.^[3][10] It comes from Genoese brüma, perhaps from Greek brôma “food; corrosion”, and Spanish has broma in the same sense.^[3][14][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 7, 827
10. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 616
14. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 403
15. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)