camelopardo

Forms

camelopardo m (plural camelopardi, feminine cameloparda)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian cameleopard and Old Italian camelpardo.^[2][3] GDLI enters the word under cammellopardo.^[4]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Late Latin camelopardus (“giraffe”), the form Isidore uses, a variant of Latin camēlopardalis, which Varro has.^[2][5][6] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek καμηλοπάρδαλις (kamēlopárdalis, “giraffe”), a compound of κάμηλος (kámēlos, “camel”) and πάρδαλις (párdalis, “leopard, panther”).^[7][1] Wiktionary explains the name by the giraffe's long neck like a camel's and its spots like a leopard's.^[1]

The oldest forms, Old Italian cameleopard in Mantuan and the Pisan plural cameleopardi, were reshaped after leopardo.^[2] The same Latin word gave French camélopard and Old Occitan camelopart, and the longer Latin form gave cameleopardale, used by Rabelais, and Renaissance Italian cammellopardale.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Belcalzer's Mantuan translation (1299–1309) has cameleopard for the giraffe.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The form camelopardo is recorded in the Vite degli imperatori romani (1431), in a Tuscan Bible translation (1471) and in Baldelli (1574), and D'Annunzio still used it in 1907.^[2] The word was displaced by giraffa and is now rare.^[7][5]

Timeline

• 1299–1309 – Belcalzer writes Mantuan cameleopard.^[3][2]
• 1345–1367 – Fazio degli Uberti uses the plural cameleopardi.^[2]
• 1431 – Camelopardo appears in the Vite degli imperatori romani.^[2][8]
• 1574–1575 – GRADIT's first date for the word.^[5]
• 1907 – D'Annunzio uses it.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare, obsolete) The giraffe.^[5][7][3]

Related words

• giraffa
• cammello
• Latin camēlopardalis

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 576
5. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 699
7. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET