budello

Forms

budello m (plural (in the meaning "intestines, bowels") budella f or (all other meanings) budelli m)^[1] Old Italian and dialect forms include Old Italian budelo, Old Italian budellu and Old Italian budele.^[2] Old Paduan had Old Italian buèllo beside budelo, and Campanella wrote bodello in 1622.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin botellus (“small sausage”), a diminutive of botulus (“sausage, black pudding”).^{[4][5][6][1][7]} Wiktionary allows for Vulgar Latin *butellus in between.^[1] The sense “intestine” is not recorded in Latin, where the word meant only the food, but the Romance words and Medieval Latin botellus “gut” (802) show that it was already current in regional Latin.^[3] In Italy Medieval Latin butellus is recorded at Venice in 1227 and at Bologna in 1250, and budellus at Parma in 1255 and at Bologna in 1288.^[4]

The ⟨d⟩ for Latin /t/ shows that the word reached the standard language from the north, where /t/ between vowels was voiced.^[4][8] DEI takes the early Medieval Latin records as evidence against a loan from Old Occitan budel, and adds that the word was carried south as well, where it is not native (Sicilian vudeddu).^[9] The same Latin word gave Old French boel (modern French boyau), Occitan budel, Catalan budell and Friulian budièl.^[5][3][10] English bowel is a cognate through French.^[1]

botulus is not a native Latin word: DELI and Nocentini take it as probably Oscan.^[4][5] Nocentini bases this on Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌸𐌿𐍃 (qiþus, “stomach, belly”), which points to a stem with an initial labiovelar, and Oscan and Umbrian turned such a sound into /b/.^[5] The southern origin of Latin lucanica (“sausage”) supports it.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Venetian translation of the Pamphilus from about 1250, with the sense “intestine, bowels” of an animal or a person.^[2] DELI dates the Italian word to a document from Lucca of 1288 and the plural budella to Giordano da Pisa's sermons of 1305–1306.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for the guts of animals and people, for the sheep's gut from which strings for musical instruments were made, for the skin of a sausage and for the umbilical cord (budello del bellico).^[2] Fixed phrases were already there: empiersi il budello, to eat one's fill, and oaths sworn on someone's guts.^[2] Figurative uses began with a long tube: Simone Sigoli, in the second half of the 14th century, called an elephant's trunk a budello.^[4]

From there the word came to mean any long, narrow passage.^[6][11] The TLIO already has a deep, dark place full of tunnels.^[2] The sense “long, narrow and usually smelly alley” is first recorded in Salvatore Di Giacomo, before 1934, and the Accademia's dictionary also cites D'Annunzio.^[4] In botany budello pollinico is the pollen tube.^[12][13] Alemannic German borrowed the word as Büdel.^[1]

Timeline

• 1227 – Medieval Latin buthellus is recorded at Venice.^[4]
• c. 1250 – A Venetian translation of the Pamphilus has the first Italian record.^[2]
• 1288 – Budello appears in a document from Lucca.^[4]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses the plural budella.^[4]
• 1348–1385 – Simone Sigoli calls an elephant's trunk a budello.^[4]
• 1622 – Campanella writes the form bodello.^[4]
• Before 1934 – Salvatore Di Giacomo uses the word for a narrow alley.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A length of intestine, mostly of an animal.^[11][14] In the plural le budella: the whole intestine, the bowels, guts: le budella del coniglio.^[6][11][14]
2. gut as a material, as in corde di budello, gut strings.^[14][1]
3. (figurative) A long, narrow tube or hose: un budello di plastica.^[6][11][13]
4. (figurative) A narrow passage, tunnel or long, narrow room or corridor.^[6][11][8]
5. (figurative) A long, narrow, often dark and smelly alley.^[6][11][13]
6. (botany) budello pollinico: the pollen tube.^[13][14]

Word family

• sbudellare
• imbudellare
• torcibudella
• budellame
• budellone
• budellino

Related words

• botulino
• botulismo
• Latin botellus
• French boyau

Usage notes

In the sense “bowels” the plural is the feminine le budella (rarely le budelle). In the figurative senses it is i budelli.^[13][14] Colloquial phrases include riempirsi le budella, to eat one's fill, cavare le budella a qualcuno, to kill someone with a wound to the belly, and sentirsi torcere or tremare le budella, to be very frightened.^[6][14]

DEI records a separate vulgar Tuscan budello “loose woman” (Palazzeschi), from which Old Italian budellone “scoundrel”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 6, 1252
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 626
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)