cervino

Forms

cervino (feminine cervina, masculine plural cervini, feminine plural cervine)^[1] Old Italian also has the feminine forms Old Italian chervina and Old Italian chirvina.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cervīnus (“of a deer”), from cervus (“deer, stag”) with the suffix -īnus.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin adjective also survives in Old French cervin, Old Occitan cervin, Catalan cerví and Spanish cervino (1351). Spanish also has cervuno, from a Latin form in ⟨-ūnus⟩.^[7] Sardinian cherbinu means “dun, isabelline”.^[8][9]

cervus goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱer(h₂)-uo- (“having horns”), originally “the horned animal”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Ciampolo di Meo Ugurgieri's Sienese translation of the Aeneid, before 1340: toccò le nare d'odore cervino (“she touched [the hounds'] nostrils with the scent of deer”).^[2][11][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Tuscan also used the word for the coat of a horse of the colour of a deer's, and in plant names such as lingua cervina, the hart's-tongue fern.^[2][12] The silk guild statutes of 1513 forbid the hair of bestie cervine, deer.^[11] Literary Italian has cervino from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) on.^[7] Spino cervino or spina cervina is the buckthorn, and as a noun cervino names mat-grass, a grass of mountain pastures that Late Latin already called cervina.^[12][8][13] Calabrian capra cervina is a goat with a variegated coat.^[8]

Timeline

• Before 1340 – Ciampolo di Meo Ugurgieri uses odore cervino.^[2][5]
• 1351 – Spanish cervino is recorded.^[7]
• 1499 – The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili uses the word.^[7]
• 1513 – The statutes of the silk guild mention bestie cervine.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a deer, cervine: guanti di pelle cervina.^[4][5][14]
2. (of a horse's coat) Of the colour of a deer's coat, fawn.^[13][15][2]

Noun

1. (botany) mat-grass (Nardus stricta), a tufted grass of mountain pastures with stiff, prickly leaves, also called nardo sottile.^[13][15][5]

Related words

• cervo
• cervato
• Latin cervinus

Usage notes

GRADIT also has a separate technical cervino (1913), from New Latin Cervinae: a deer of the subfamily Cervinae, and in some classifications, as plural Cervini, the subfamily itself.^[4] Capitalised, Cervino is the Italian name of the Matterhorn, from French Cervin.^[1] Set phrases include lingua cervina, spino cervino and erba cervina.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 1230
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 875
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)