celabro

Forms

celabro m (plural celabri)^[1] Old Italian also had celebro, cielabro, cielebro and cellebro.^[2][3] Southern forms include Old Neapolitan celabro (1479) and Old Sicilian chèlabru.^[3]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin cerebrum (“brain”), in a form with the first ⟨r⟩ changed to ⟨l⟩ by dissimilation.^[4][5][6][1] The LEI files it and celebro among the learned forms that underwent this dissimilation, beside the undissimilated cerebro, of which it is a doublet.^[3][1][7] Battisti and Alessio call it semi-learned, and note that the Latin word lived on as a popular word only in the Latin of the Balkans, while the diminutive Latin cerebellum took its place elsewhere, the source of cervello.^[4][8]

The same dissimilation is found in Old Spanish celebro (1251) and in Old Occitan celebrar (“to smell”), while Old French kept cerebre.^[3]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *kerasro- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂srom, a derivative of the root of the word for “head”, the same as in Ancient Greek κάρα (kára, “head”) and Sanskrit शिरस् (śíras, “head”).^[9][1][10] Nussbaum explained it as an adjective “being in the head” turned into a noun.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Among the first records is the Novellino (1281–1300), where the wise men summoned to a sick prince disagree, one saying it was a infermità di celabro, “a sickness of the brain”.^[3][11][12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant both the organ in the skull and the seat of the mind and its faculties;^[2][3] Fazio degli Uberti uses it for the head itself, and Matteo Villani for the senses.^[2][3] The phrase mancamento di celabro, “lack of brain”, meant a want of sense, as in a legend of saints where an abbess smiles at what a woman tells her, taking it for a sign of weak wits.^[13][12]

Leonardo, Bembo and Parini still wrote celabro, and Gioberti used it in the 19th century, but the dictionaries now mark it as archaic or obsolete, a variant of cerebro.^{[4][14][13][6][7][5]} In the southern dialects the dissimilated form survives as an everyday word for the brain: Neapolitan cielèbro (1646), Barese celièbbre, and with transferred senses “forehead”, “head” and “wits”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1281–1300 – The Novellino speaks of an infermità di celabro.^[3]
• Late 13th century – A western Tuscan bestiary uses celabro.^[3]
• c. 1350 – An Old Italian text of northern Italy has celabro for the organ.^[3]
• 1450 – The Salentine Libro di Sidrac writes celabro.^[3]
• 1646 – Neapolitan cielèbro is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) The brain, also as the seat of the mind: aveva il celabro debole.^{[11][6][5][15]}

Related words

• cerebro
• cervello
• Latin cerebrum

Usage notes

GRADIT and Zingarelli treat celabro as an obsolete variant of cerebro, today replaced by cervello.^[7][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 l m Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 1093
4. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 841
5. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ 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, 945
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli