butirro

Forms

butirro m^[2][3] Early forms include Old Italian butiro, Old Italian buturo, Old Italian bituro, Old Italian boturo and Old Italian buturro.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin būtȳrum (“butter”), in the variant būtīrum with ⟨ī⟩ for the Greek vowel.^[5][6][2][1] Latin took the word from the language of medicine as from Ancient Greek βούτυρον (boútūron), literally “cow cheese”, a compound of βοῦς (boûs, “ox, cow”) and τυρός (turós, “cheese”).^[7][6][8][1]

Nocentini sets out three Latin adaptations of the Greek word.^[5] One kept the Greek stress and gave Old French burre.^[5] One with ⟨ū⟩ gave southern Old Italian buturro, its ⟨rr⟩ doubled by the stress.^[5] One with ⟨ī⟩ gave the present word, which long competed with burro, the loan from French.^[5] The LEI holds that the Latin alternation of ⟨u⟩ and ⟨i⟩ for the upsilon of the Greek word, as in murtus beside myrtus, is enough to explain the ⟨i⟩ forms of northern Italy.^[6]

The sources disagree on how the word reached Italian.^[7][9] DELI calls it a dialect word, as the 1554 dictionary of Minerbi shows, and not only a southern and Roman one, as Rohlfs held.^[7] DEI and Meyer-Lübke take the ⟨i⟩ for the Greek vowel and the kept ⟨t⟩ as signs of a late, learned borrowing, and DEI reads ⟨-irro⟩ as northern.^[9][10] Prati too thinks it came by the literary route.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's first record is southern, in Cielo d'Alcamo, before 1250.^[6] In Tuscany the Florentine translation of the Tesoro of the late 13th century has it for the fat obtained from cow's milk, also used to grease things and to make medicines.^[4] The Medieval Latin form buterius is recorded at Modena in 1277.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word for an oily, sticky substance like pitch or bitumen.^[4][12] The 15th century shows many local forms: boturo in a Roman recipe book (1434–1449), biturro in Burchiello (before 1449), butiero in 1479 and butiro at Verona in 1487.^[7] Pharmacy named fatty vegetable substances butirro as well, such as butirro di cacao.^[13]

As burro spread from French, butirro became a regional word: northern for butter, and southern for a small cheese with butter inside.^{[3][8][14][15]} As an adjective it describes pear varieties with melting, sweet flesh and beans with thick, tender pods.^[14][15] The adjective butirroso “buttery” dates from Goldoni (1755), and chemistry named acido butirrico (butyric acid) after the rancid butter it occurs in (1819).^[7]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Cielo d'Alcamo has butirro in a southern text.^[6]
• 1277 – Medieval Latin buterius at Modena.^[7]
• Late 13th century – The Florentine Tesoro uses the word.^[4]
• 1364 – Zanobi da Strada writes butirro.^[6]
• 1434–1449 – Boturo in a Roman recipe book.^[7]
• 1554 – Minerbi's dictionary glosses buttiro with burro.^[7]
• 1755 – Goldoni uses butirroso.^[7]
• 1819 – Butirico (later butirrico) appears in chemistry.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, northern) butter, the same as burro.^{[2][3][15][14]}
2. (regional, southern) A small soft cheese with butter inside, the same as burrino.^{[2][3][8][14]}

Adjective

1. Soft and buttery, like butter.^[2][8]
2. (agriculture) Of varieties of pear with melting, juicy flesh, and of beans with thick, tender pods: fagiolo butirro.^{[2][3][15][14]}

Word family

• butirroso
• butirrico
• butirrometro
• butirrino

Related words

• burro
• Latin butyrum
• Ancient Greek βούτυρον (boútūron)

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 8, 461
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d 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. 644
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 196
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., 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 c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli