campana

Forms

campana f (plural campane)^[1] Old Italian forms include canpana, chanpana and champana.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin campāna (“bell; steelyard”), from Campāna (“Campanian”), the neuter plural of the adjective of Campania, in the phrase vāsa “Campanian vessels”, vessels of bronze from Campania, the region where bronze of good quality was cast.^[3][4][5][1] The explanation goes back to Isidore of Seville, and Pliny already praised Campanian bronze.^[4][1] Wölfflin thought the name came from the metal for casting bells, the bronze of Campania.^[6][6] Bells were in use in the West from the 4th century under the name signum, and the new name is later: as a bare noun it is recorded in 510, for a steelyard, and as “bell” in a letter of the deacon Ferrandus of Carthage of about 551.^[7][1][6] Wiktionary mentions a link with Ancient Greek καπάνη (kapánē, “felt helmet”), which it judges probably spurious.^[1]

The word lives on in Dalmatian kanpuona, Friulian ciampane, Old Occitan campana, Catalan campana and Spanish campana.^[6][8] Old French had only traces such as Old French champaine, and French campane is a borrowing, from Italian according to DEI.^[6][4][7] Portuguese keeps only the diminutive Portuguese campainha and calls the bell sino, from the Latin word for a sign, as Romansh does.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Sienese Ruggieri Apugliese, in the middle of the 13th century, in the sense of a bell: a metal instrument on a tower of a church, a town hall or a castle, sounded by a clapper or a hammer.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word for an alembic (about 1350, in the translation of Crescenzi), for a wine cup, and in Siena for the Consiglio della campana, a council of the commune.^[3][2] From the shape came the sense of a glass dome put over an object (before 1566, Grazzini), and later the lampshade, the bell of a wind instrument and the game of hopscotch.^[3][5][9]

A bell rung a martello is struck by its clapper while it stays still, like hammer blows, to sound an alarm.^[3][10] Sordo come una campana, stone-deaf, may come from a riddle that calls the bell a thing with a voice but no hearing.^[3] Sentire tutte e due le campane is to hear both sides, and stare in campana to be on the alert.^[10][9] The phrase amor di campanile, love of one's own town, was recorded in 1865 and may be a calque of French esprit de clocher.^[3]

Italian gave French campane in the 16th century,^[7] English campana in 1706 and German Campana in 1865, as names of the instrument.^[11] English campanile, bell tower, comes from the Italian derivative in the 1630s.^[12]

Timeline

• About 510 – Late Latin campana is recorded, for a steelyard.^[7][1]
• About 551 – Ferrandus of Carthage uses campana for a bell.^[6]
• Mid-13th century – Ruggieri Apugliese uses campana.^[2][3]
• 1297 – Campanile is recorded.^[4]
• About 1350 – Campana means an alembic in the translation of Crescenzi.^[3]
• Before 1566 – Grazzini uses it for a glass cover.^[3]
• 1630s – English borrows campanile.^[12]
• 1706 – English campana is first recorded.^[11]
• 1897 – Campanilismo, parochialism, is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bell, usually of bronze, shaped like an upturned cup and sounded by a clapper inside or a hammer outside, especially in church towers: A mezzogiorno suonano tutte le campane del paese.^[5][13][14]
2. (figurative) One side's version of an event: sentire tutte e due le campane.^[5][10]
3. A bell-shaped glass cover that protects a delicate object; a bell jar.^[5][14]
4. A bell-shaped lampshade.^[5][14]
5. Hopscotch, the children's game.^[5][14]
6. (music) The flared end of a wind instrument.^[5][14]
7. (architecture) The core of a Corinthian capital, wrapped in acanthus leaves.^[5][14]
8. (nautical) The drum of a capstan, round which the cable is wound.^[5]
9. A bell-shaped bin for collecting glass or other waste for recycling.^[10][15]

Word family

• campanaccio
• campanaro
• campanario
• campanella
• campanello
• campanile
• campanilismo
• campanilista
• campano
• campanula
• campanulato
• campanone
• scampanare
• scampanio
• scampanellare

Related words

• campanatura
• Latin Campānus
• French campane

Usage notes

A campana means bell-shaped, of a skirt or trousers that widen towards the hem.^[10][13] Bells are not rung from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday (legare le campane) and ring out again for Easter (sciogliere le campane).^[10][16] A separate campana, recorded in 1830, is a variety of pear, the pera campana or buoncristiana, from the adjective campano “of Campania”.^{[5][9][17][18]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 279
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 705
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 597
18. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET