cano

Forms

cano (feminine cana, masculine plural cani, feminine plural cane)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cānus (“white, grey (of hair)”).^[2][1][3] DEI, Zingarelli and GDLI call it a learned word, while the LEI and Wiktionary list it among the inherited words.^{[4][5][6][2][1]} The Latin word survives in most Romance languages except Romanian: Old French chaines (“grey hairs”), Old Occitan canas, Spanish cano, Portuguese cão and Sardinian kanu.^[2][7]

The Latin word comes from Proto-Italic *kasno- (“grey”), as cascus (“old”) and Paelignian casnar (“old man”) show.^[8][9] De Vaan traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₁s-no- (“grey”), related to the word for the hare in other languages: Old High German haso, Sanskrit शश (śaśá).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis of the 13th century, with the sense “white-haired”.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word was used of hair, beards and old people, as in Sennuccio del Bene's io son col capo cano (“my head is white”), and in the sense “white” more generally: Cecco d'Ascoli's cano succo, a white juice.^[6][10] Ariosto still has una femina cana, and by the 19th century it was felt to be archaic.^[2][11] The feminine plural le cane meant white hairs, in the proverb le cane possono esser vane, ma le rughe son certane (white hairs may deceive, wrinkles never do).^[11][6]

Timeline

• 1200s – The Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis has canu.^[10][2]
• Before 1349 – Sennuccio del Bene writes col capo cano.^[2][12]
• 1516 – Ariosto uses it in the Orlando furioso.^[2]
• 1853 – A collection of Tuscan proverbs calls it a word of the oldest language.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary, archaic) White-haired (canuto), hoary.^[3][13][14]
2. (literary) white.^[6][10]

Related words

• canuto
• canizie
• Latin cānus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
3. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 723
5. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 643
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)