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cavo

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Italian has two words spelled cavo: the adjective “hollow”, also a noun “hollow, cavity”, from Latin, and the noun “cable, rope”, a northern form of capo “head, end”.[1][2][3]

cavo1 hollow

Pronunciation

Forms

cavo (feminine cava, masculine plural cavi, feminine plural cave)[4]

Etymology

The adjective “hollow” is inherited from Latin cavus (“hollow, concave”), and the noun sense continues its neuter cavum (“hollow, hole”).[1][3][2][4] The same word is Occitan cau and Catalan cau (“rabbit burrow”), and Logudorese cau is the pith of the elder.[3][5][6]

Latin also had a variant covus, recorded only by grammarians such as Varro, whose vowel o reappears in Spanish cueva (“cave”), Portuguese cova (“cave”), covo (“hollow”) and Italian covone (“sheaf”).[3][5][7] DEI explains the classical form as remade after the verb cavō (“to hollow out”).[6] Comparison outside Latin supports the o: Ancient Greek κόοι (kóoi, “hollows”) in Hesychius and Old Irish cúa (“hollow”).[3][8] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kowó- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱouH-ó- (“hollow”), with Ancient Greek κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”) as a further cognate.[8] He explains the Latin a by an unrounding of o before w in a syllable before the accent.[8] DELI and Zingarelli call the Latin word of uncertain origin.[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Bono Giamboni's Libro de' Vizi e delle Virtudi, before 1292, and his Italian version of Brunetto Latini's Tesoro says that the earth è tutta cava dentro di luogo in luogo “is all hollow inside here and there”, full of veins and caverns.[10][1][11][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used it of hollow objects and places, of sunken eyes, of deep valleys and of an empty ship.[10][7] Petrarch's in loco oscuro e cavo “in a dark and hollow place” and Dante's souls whose eyes were oscura e cava “dark and sunken” (Purgatorio 23.22) show the literary adjective.[11][9] The anatomical vena cava is recorded in 1574, and the noun “hollow, concavity” before 1537 (Vannoccio Biringuccio).[1] Today the adjective is mainly literary or technical, while the noun names anatomical cavities.[2][13]

The feminine noun cava “quarry” is in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century, and the verb cavare “to pull out” in Dante (1304–1308).[1]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses cavo “hollow”.[10][1]
  • End of the 13th century – Cava “quarry” appears in the Novellino.[1]
  • Before 1537 – Biringuccio uses the noun for a hollow.[1]
  • 1574 – Vena cava is recorded.[1]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. hollow, empty inside; concave: una canna cava.[2][13][14]
  2. (literary) sunken, of the eyes or cheeks.[2][13][9]
  3. (anatomy) vena cava: either of the two large veins that bring blood to the right atrium of the heart.[13][14][9]

Noun

  1. A hollow, concavity: il cavo della mano.[2][13][15]
  2. (anatomy) A cavity of the body, also a pathological one: cavo orale.[2][13][14]

Word family

  • cava
  • cavare
  • cavità
  • cavatore
  • cavatura

cavo2 cable

Pronunciation

Forms

cavo m (plural cavi)[4]

Etymology

The noun “cable” is borrowed from Ligurian cavo (“head, end”), or Venetian cao, the northern outcome of Latin caput (“head”) that corresponds to Tuscan capo: among sailors “the end of the rope” came to mean the rope itself.[1][3][2][13][14] A naval dictionary quoted by DELI rejects a source in a shortened form of capulum (“halter, rope”) and compares nautical cima “rope”, literally “top, end”, as a similar figure.[1] The northern word replaced Tuscan canapo “hawser”.[1][16]

DEI leaves the question open between this explanation and Spanish cabo, from Portuguese cabo and an older *caboo from that Latin noun.[6] Meyer-Lübke derives the Italian noun from the Iberian word, and Wiktionary follows him.[5][4] The same Latin noun gave Old French chables (“cables”) (about 1165), French câble and Old Occitan cable.[17][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Anonimo Genovese, a Genoese poet writing before 1311.[10][1] In Tuscan the word is in Luigi Pulci, before 1470, as a thick rope.[1][2]

Semantic evolution

In 1832 the naval writer Giuseppe Tonello noted that corda was considered improper on board: all the ship's ropes were called cavi, except the bell rope, which alone was a corda.[1][12] The electrical sense, an insulated conductor for current or telegraph signals, is recorded in 1892, with the cavo sottomarino “submarine cable”.[1][16] The diminutive cavetto is used for a thin electric lead (1956).[1] Modern compounds include cavo coassiale “coaxial cable” and televisione via cavo “cable television”.[13]

Timeline

  • About 1165 – Old French chables “cables” is recorded.[17]
  • Before 1311 – The Anonimo Genovese uses cavo.[10][1]
  • Before 1470 – Luigi Pulci uses it in Tuscan.[1][2]
  • 1832 – Tonello notes that every rope on board is a cavo.[1]
  • 1892 – The electrical sense is recorded.[1]
  • 1956 – Cavetto is recorded for an electric lead.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A thick, strong rope or cable of steel or fibre, for hauling, lifting or mooring: Il cavo della gru si è spezzato.[2][13][14]
  2. (electricity) An insulated conductor for electric current or telecommunications: Ho perso il cavo del caricabatterie.[2][13][14]

Word family

  • cavetto

Usage notes

A third, older cavo meant a headland or promontory (Agnolo Firenzuola, 16th century), from the same Ligurian and Venetian word for “head”.[6][11] In foundry work cavo is also the mould into which wax or plaster figures are cast, a noun formed from cavare.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 830
  7. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 682
  8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ 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
  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. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 261
  17. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 11, 1002