cannone

Forms

cannone m (plural cannoni)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian canna (“reed; tube”) + -one (“augmentative suffix”), first in the general sense of a big reed or tube.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The military sense took over from the 16th century.^[2][3] Devoto–Oli and Treccani keep the tube and the gun as two headwords, the second derived from the first.^[6][7] DELI cites Prati for Medieval Latin canones de metallo, firearms, in a Florentine record of 1326.^[2]

Körting set up Latin *canno (“large tube”) as the source of French canon, Spanish cañón and Portuguese canhão.^[8] Wiktionary lists the French, Spanish and Portuguese words, Catalan canó and German Kanone as borrowings from the Italian word.^[1] DIFIT dates the French word, in the sense “cannon”, to 1338 and the German one to 1558.^[9]

The base word is from Latin canna (“small reed”), which continues in every Romance language except Romanian.^[10] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian qanûm (“reed”).^[1][11] Wiktionary compares Biblical Hebrew קָנֶה (qané).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giordano da Pisa's Lenten sermons preached in Florence in 1306, where the word means a large piece of reed.^[12][3] DELI dates the sense “organ pipe” to the same preacher, before 1311, and “large tube” to the Italian version of Crescenzi, about 1350.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used cannone for many reed- or tube-shaped things: the reed on which weavers wound thread, a drainpipe, an organ pipe, the neck (cannone del collo), a whirlwind and the bone of a horse's tail.^[12] In the 16th century it became the word for the gun: Machiavelli uses it in 1514–1520, and Ariosto lists the bombarda beside the semplice cannon and the cannon doppio.^[2][13] Guicciardini describes the light bronze pieces that the French called cannoni, firing iron balls and drawn by horses rather than oxen.^[13]

The gun gave many derivatives: cannonata (before 1529), cannoniera (before 1540), cannoniero (1598) and cannoneggiare (1771), and cannoniere was applied in 1927 to a footballer who scores many goals.^[2] Cannoncino was a cream-filled pastry by 1729.^[2] The figurative sense “exceptional person” is from 1939.^[2][9] Modern phrases include carne da cannone, soldiers sent to die, and donna cannone, a very fat woman shown at fairs.^[7][6] In slang the word also names a large joint.^[1]

The old sense lives on in the dialects: northern Italian cannone “big reed” (1568), Sicilian cannùni.^[10]

Timeline

• 1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses cannone for a large piece of reed.^[12][3]
• 1326 – Medieval Latin canones de metallo are recorded as firearms at Florence.^[2]
• 1338 – French canon “cannon” is recorded.^[9]
• About 1350 – The sense “large tube” is recorded.^[2]
• 1514–1520 – Machiavelli uses the word for a piece of artillery.^[2][3]
• Before 1529 – Cannonata is recorded in Castiglione.^[2]
• 1558 – German Kanone is recorded.^[9]
• 1729 – Cannoncino is recorded for a filled pastry.^[2]
• 1927 – Cannoniere is used of a goal-scoring footballer.^[2]
• 1939 – The sense “exceptional person” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (weaponry) A cannon: a piece of artillery with a long rifled barrel and a calibre over 20 mm, for long-range fire on a flat trajectory;^{[4][6][14][15]} carne da cannone, cannon fodder: All'alba i cannoni della fortezza tacquero.^{[4][6][14][15]}
2. (figurative, colloquial) An ace, a person who excels in a field: Mia sorella è un cannone in latino.^[4][6][14]
3. A large tube or pipe: Il fumo usciva dal cannone della caldaia.^[4][14][15]
4. (regional, Tuscany) A piece of thick reed or a tube on which thread is wound for weaving.^[6][14][7]
5. (sewing) A box pleat.^[4][6][15]
6. (history) On armour, each of the tubular pieces protecting the arm and forearm.^[4][6][15]
7. (history) The rear part of an old bombard, holding the charge.^[4][15]
8. (electronics) cannone elettronico, an electron gun.^[6][14][15]
9. (zoology) The cannon bone of hoofed animals.^[4][15][7]
10. (slang) A large joint of cannabis.^[1]
11. Used after a noun: donna cannone, an enormously fat woman.^[6][14]

Word family

• cannonata
• cannoncino
• cannoneggiare
• cannoneggiamento
• cannoniera
• cannoniere
• cannonissimo

Related words

• canna
• French canon
• German Kanone
• Spanish cañón

Usage notes

The GDLI records an old cannone (also mezzo cannone) naming a stringed instrument shaped like a trapezium, a kind of psaltery, which it derives from Greek through Arabic, reshaped after canna.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
10. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 1009
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli