calvo

Forms

calvo (feminine calva, masculine plural calvi, feminine plural calve)^[1] Old Italian forms include calbo, Old Italian calvu and Old Italian chalvo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin calvus (“bald”).^[3][4][1][5] DELI calls it a learned word, but Nocentini and the LEI treat it as inherited, like its cognates in French, Occitan and Ibero-Romance.^[6][3][5] The same Latin word is Old French chalf, modern French chauve, Occitan calv, Catalan calb, Spanish calvo and Portuguese calvo; it did not survive in Romanian.^[3][5][7]

The Latin adjective is compared with Sanskrit कुल्व (kulvá, “bald, thin-haired”) and Avestan kauruua- (“thin-haired”), and more distantly with Old Norse skalli (“bald head”) and the English word skull.^[3][8][1] Since Latin turned /lw/ into ⟨ll⟩, de Vaan derives calvus from Proto-Italic *kale/owo-, from Proto-Indo-European *klH-e/ou̯o- (“bald”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's earliest example is Venetian fronte calva “bald forehead” in the Disticha Catonis of about 1250, followed by Florentine testa calva in the Fiori di filosafi, which the LEI dates 1264 and the TLIO 1271–1275.^[5][2] The sense is the Latin one: wholly or partly without hair on the head.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word as a noun, as a nickname, for a beardless face, and figuratively for “lacking” something: Cicerchia, about 1364, speaks of someone calvo of charity and of hope.^[2][5] DELI dates the sense “bare of vegetation” to the 14th century, in the Bible translations;^[6] it lives on in place names such as Monte Calvo.^[9][10] Dante's non ti potrebbe far d'un capel calvo (“it could not take a single hair from you”) shows the old turn far calvo di.^[11]

Fortune was pictured with hair in front and bald behind, so that she must be seized as she comes: Bandello writes la fortuna porta i capelli in fronte e di dietro è calva.^[12] From Carducci on, calvo was also said of an age or style grown old and stale.^[5] In agriculture calvo names local varieties of wheat whose ears have no awns.^[12][13]

Timeline

• About 1250 – Venetian fronte calva appears in the Disticha Catonis.^[5]
• 1264 – Florentine testa calva in the Fiori di filosafi.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses calvo.^[6]
• 14th century – Calvo “bare of vegetation” in the Bible translations.^[6]
• About 1364 – Cicerchia uses calvo figuratively, “lacking”.^[5]
• 1509 – Machiavelli uses calvizie “baldness”.^[6]
• 1874 – Carducci uses calvo for something outdated.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. bald: wholly or partly without hair: Mio zio è diventato calvo a trent'anni.^[4][9][14]
2. (figurative, uncommon) Of land or a mountain, bare of vegetation: un colle calvo.^[4][9][13]

Noun

1. A bald person.^[4][9][13]
2. (agriculture) A local variety of wheat with awnless ears.^[9][13][12]
3. (obsolete) Baldness; the bald part of the head.^[14][15][11]

Word family

• calvezza
• semicalvo
• incalvire

Related words

• calvizie
• decalvare
• Latin calvus
• French chauve

Usage notes

The argomento del calvo (“argument of the bald man”) is the ancient sorites: losing one hair does not make a man bald, nor does losing the next, so it seems he never becomes bald.^[10] Zoology uses the adjective in names such as ibis calvo and avvoltoio calvo.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9, 1533
6. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 695
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli