cardellino

Forms

cardellino m (plural cardellini)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian gardelino (Venetian) and Old Italian cardelino;^[2][3][4] Tuscan has calderino, with ⟨r⟩ and ⟨l⟩ swapped.^[2][3][4] Older variants include carderino, carderugio, cardelletto and calderugio.^[5]

Etymology

It is from Italian cardello + -ino, a diminutive.^[6][7][8][1] The base cardello is from Late Latin cardellus, which replaced classical Latin carduēlis (“goldfinch”).^[2][9][10] The Latin word is from carduus (“thistle”), since the bird likes the plant and eats its seeds.^[2][9][1] Prati takes it as the oldest Italian form, though recorded later.^[5]

Related words in other languages are Romanian căldăraș (“bullfinch”), Spanish cardelina, Catalan carderola and Venetian gardelina.^[11] The word French chardonneret is a separate formation, from French chardon (“thistle”).^[9][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The plural gardelini appears in the 14th century, in a Venetian translation of the Navigatio Sancti Brendani, for the goldfinch.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

Ariosto, before 1533, contrasts the nightingale, which does not last in a cage, with the gardelino, which does.^[2][13] Garzoni writes cardelino in 1585, and the spelling cardellino appears in A. M. Salvini in 1717.^[2] Zingarelli dates the word to 1481.^[8]

The bird has always been prized as a songbird kept in cages;^[10][13] in zoology the word also names the genus Carduelis.^[10]

Timeline

• 1300s – Venetian gardelini in a translation of the Navigatio Sancti Brendani.^[2][12]
• Before 1533 – Ariosto uses gardelino.^[2]
• 1585 – Garzoni writes cardelino.^[2]
• 1717 – Salvini writes cardellino.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), a small finch with a red face, a yellow band on black wings, and a pleasant song, often kept in cages.^[10][7][14]
2. (zoology) Any small bird of the genus Carduelis, in the finch family.^[10]

Word family

• cardellina

Related words

• cardello
• cardo
• Latin carduelis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 240
6. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 752
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)