Etymologically
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cambio

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Pronunciation

Forms

cambio m (plural cambi, relational adjective cambiale)[1] Old Italian also had the plural cambiora.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a noun formed from the verb cambiare (from Italian cambiare + -o).[4][5][6][7][1][3] The verb continues Late Latin cambiō (“to exchange”), first found in Apuleius and explained in the glosses as “to give one thing for another”.[8][9][1] The Latin verb is generally taken to be Gaulish: LEI compares Middle Irish cimb (“tribute”), and Wiktionary derives Latin cambium (“exchange”) from Gaulish cambion, from Proto-Celtic *kambos (“twisted, crooked”).[8][10][9][1] Figge rejected a Gaulish source and proposed Vulgar Latin *coambāre (“to join, connect”), from Latin ambō (“both”), and LEI leaves the question to Latinists.[8]

The verb lives on in all the Romance languages except Romanian, which has Romanian schimba from Vulgar Latin *excambiāre.[8] The noun is Spanish cambio, Portuguese câmbio and Occitan cambi, while the French noun is change.[11][1] Italian also has cangiare, borrowed from French changer.[10]

DEI treats the botanical “cambio” “cambium” (19th century) as a separate, learned word, from New Latin cambium (1818).[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is canbio at the end of the 12th century, in a Tuscan record of an exchange of land, with the sense of exchange or replacement of one thing for another.[4][3] The money sense came soon after: Medieval Latin cambium for the changing of one currency into another is found at Bologna in 1209, and Italian cambio in 1211.[4][12][5]

Semantic evolution

Merchants used the word from 1278 for the trade in money between places by means of bills, and lettera di cambio “bill of exchange” appears in a Lucca document of 1376.[4][13] Dante writes in the Convivio (1304–1308) that one “makes a fine exchange” who gives imperfect things to gain perfect ones (fa bello cambio).[4][2] Old Italian also used the word for a reward or a just punishment, and had the phrase in cambio di “instead of”.[3]

The sense “cambium”, the growing layer between wood and bark, is recorded in 1830, and cambio di velocità, the gearbox of a motor car, in Panzini's dictionary of 1918.[4][14] In modern Italian the word also means a change of clothes, the relief who takes over a shift, a bureau de change, and an exchange of pieces in chess.[5][6][15]

English used cambio for a bill of exchange from 1645 and for an exchange office from 1656, and German had Cambio from 1616, beside Wechsel, a calque of the Italian money sense recorded from 1383.[13]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – Canbio in a record of an exchange of land.[4][3]
  • 1209 – Medieval Latin cambium “money exchange” at Bologna.[4][12]
  • 1211 – Italian cambio for the exchange of one coin for another.[4][5][13]
  • 1278 – The trade in money by bills of exchange, in the records of the Tolomei.[4]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante uses cambio in the Convivio.[4]
  • 1376 – Lettera di cambio in a Lucca document.[4]
  • 1383 – German Wechsel in the money sense, modelled on the Italian word.[13]
  • 1645 – English cambio “bill of exchange”.[13]
  • 1830 – The botanical sense “cambium”.[4]
  • 1918 – Cambio di velocità “gearbox” in Panzini's dictionary.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The replacement of something with another thing of the same kind; a change: Abbiamo avuto un cambio di orario all'ultimo momento.[5][6][7]
  2. A change of clothes or linen: Metti in valigia un cambio, staremo via una notte.[5][6][16]
  3. A person or group who takes over from others in an activity; the relief: Il collega che mi dà il cambio è in ritardo.[5][6][15]
  4. An exchange, a swap or barter: in cambio di “in exchange for”.[5][6][17]
  5. (finance) The exchange rate of one currency against another; the buying and selling of foreign currency: Il cambio tra euro e dollaro è peggiorato.[5][7][17]
  6. A bureau de change.[5]
  7. (mechanics) The gearbox of a vehicle, and its gear lever: un'auto con il cambio automatico.[5][7][17]
  8. (chess) An exchange of pieces of equal value.[5]
  9. (botany) The cambium, the layer of tissue between wood and bark that makes stems and roots grow thicker.[5][7][17]
  10. (anatomy) The layer of the periosteum that forms new bone.[7][17][16]

Word family

  • cambiale
  • cambiario
  • cambista
  • intercambio
  • cambiare
  • scambio
  • ricambio
  • cangiare
  • Latin cambium

Usage notes

Common phrases are dare il cambio (to take over from someone), darsi il cambio (to take turns), fare a cambio (to swap) and cambio della guardia (the changing of the guard; figuratively, a change of leadership).[6][17][15][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  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 f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
  9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  12. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 698
  13. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  17. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli