calma

Forms

calma f (plural calme)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cauma (“great heat”), from Ancient Greek καῦμα (kaûma, “burning heat, heat of the sun”), a derivative of καίω (kaíō, “to burn”).^[2][3][4][5] The Late Latin word is used by Christian writers from the 4th century, Jerome and the Vulgate among them.^[6] The change of sense from heat to calm happened among seamen: the hottest hours are those without wind, when the sea lies still.^[3][7]

The /l/ in place of /u/ is explained by Nocentini and the LEI, following Rohlfs, as a hypercorrection, the reverse of the common Romance change of /l/ to /u/ before a consonant.^[3][6] Körting and Wiktionary think instead of the influence of Latin calor (“heat”) and related words, but DEI finds no evidence for a Vulgar Latin *calma.^[7][1][8] DEI also holds that the noun was drawn from the verb calmare, which must come from a region that kept the diphthong /au/, probably Provence, with Marseille as the centre from which this Greek word spread.^[8][9] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain and compares Proto-Germanic *kalmaz (“frost, cold”).^[1]

The older sense survives in Old Occitan cauma (“great heat”) (1327), Sursilvan cauma (“shady resting place for cattle”) and Logudorese kama (“heat”), and French chômer (“to rest, stop work”) comes from the related Late Latin verb.^[6][10] French calme, Spanish calma and Portuguese calma are usually taken as loans from Italian.^[3][10][8] The LEI, though, records Spanish “calma” about 1330 and Portuguese in the 14th century, earlier than the Italian sea sense.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Pavian paraphrase of the Neminem laedi of 1342, where calma means the blazing heat of midday.^[11][6] The sense of a sea not ruffled by wind appears in Genoa in 1435 as carma, and as calma in Masuccio Salernitano, before 1476.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb is older than the noun in the sense of quiet: Guittone d'Arezzo uses calmare “to soothe” before 1294, Fazio degli Uberti the reflexive before 1367, and Filippo Sassetti in 1582 the wind that drops.^[2] Ariosto describes a soft sky and ’l mare in calma (“the sea in calm”).^[12][13]

The figurative sense of serenity of mind is first recorded in Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, before 1686.^[2] The adjective calmo, a shortened participle, appears in Luigi Tansillo before 1568; 19th-century purists objected to it.^[2] Calmante “sedative” is recorded in 1830.^[2][3] German Kalme “calm at sea”, recorded from 1521, came through French from Italian.^[14]

Timeline

• 1342 – A Pavian text uses calma for the heat of midday.^[11]
• 1435 – Carma “calm sea” is recorded at Genoa.^[2]
• Before 1476 – Masuccio Salernitano writes calma.^[2]
• 1521 – German Kalme is first recorded.^[14]
• Before 1568 – Luigi Tansillo uses the adjective calmo.^[2]
• Before 1686 – Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni uses calma for peace of mind.^[2]
• 1830 – Calmante is recorded as a noun for a sedative.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (meteorology) The state of the sea or the air when there is no wind; a calm: Dopo la burrasca il mare tornò in calma.^[4][15][16]
2. Quiet, peace of a place or time: la calma delle sere d'estate.^[4][5][15]
3. composure, self-control, serenity of mind; as an exclamation, “calm down!”: Calma, ragazzi, uno alla volta!^[4][15][17]
4. Slowness, lack of haste: fare le cose con calma.^[16][4]

Word family

• calmare
• calmo
• calmante
• scalmana
• scalmanarsi
• scalmanato

Related words

• calore

Usage notes

Calma e gesso!, an invitation to think before acting, comes from billiards players chalking the cue before a shot.^[16][15] DEI lists two dialect homographs: calma “stubble” in the south, from a regional Latin word taken from Greek, and calma “uncultivated land” in Piedmont, from a pre-Latin word for rock.^[8]

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 k 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 363
7. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 689
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana