chioma

Forms

chioma f (plural chiome)^[1] Old Italian also has ghioma, and the learned coma was used beside it.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin comula (“dainty hair”), a diminutive of coma (“hair of the head”), with metathesis of the ⟨l⟩.^[5][6][7][8] The change ran through a Vulgar Latin *cloma, from which /kl/ gave Italian /kj/.^{[9][10][1][11]} The Latin diminutive is recorded in Petronius in the 1st century AD.^[12][13] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek κόμη (kómē, “hair”), a Greek word of uncertain origin that also gave cometa.^[5][6]

According to the LEI, the forms from the diminutive survive only in Italo-Romance and perhaps in Romansh tumla (“mane”), in the central Grisons.^[11] Northern dialects have Venetian ciòma and Ligurian ciòma, “mane”.^[12] The simple noun continued elsewhere: Romanian coamă (“mane”), Occitan coma and Portuguese coma.^[6][14][12] The word is missing in southern Italy, and the derivatives are learned.^[12] Sabatini–Coletti call it the popular word beside the learned coma.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Sienese translation of Giles of Rome of 1288, and Zingarelli gives the same year.^[2][8] The sense is the hair of the head taken together.^[2][8] DELI's first date is Dante's Commedia (1300–1313), where Bertran de Born holds his severed head per le chiome, by the hair.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already stretched the word from the hair of the head to the beard, to a tuft of flax or wool on the distaff, to an animal's mane, to the branches and leaves of a tree, and to the rays or tail of a comet.^[2] DELI dates the foliage sense from before 1333 (Andrea Lancia Simintendi) and the comet's tail from before 1348 (Giovanni Villani).^[5] The distaff sense survives in Dante's line traendo a la rocca la chioma.^[7][15]

Buti glossed chioma as the hair that hangs down to the shoulders, and Tommaseo noted that it means all the hair together.^[4][16] The word became mainly literary and poetic: Sabatini–Coletti label it literary, and Treccani notes that it is poetic or jocular for an ordinary head of hair.^[10][15] In astronomy it now names the gaseous halo around a comet's nucleus, and the constellation Coma Berenices is Chioma di Berenice.^[7][9][17] The adjective chiomato is recorded from 1623 (Giambattista Marino).^[5]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Latin comula is recorded in Petronius.^[12]
• 1288 – A Sienese translation of Giles of Rome has the first Italian record.^[2][8]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses chioma for the hair of the head.^[5]
• Before 1333 – Andrea Lancia Simintendi uses it for the foliage of a tree.^[5]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for the tail of a comet.^[5]
• 1623 – Giambattista Marino uses chiomato.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A head of hair, especially long and thick hair.^[7][9][8]
2. (literary) A mane, of a horse or a lion.^[7][9][8]
3. (botany) The crown of a tree: its branches and leaves together.^[7][9][10]
4. (astronomy) The coma of a comet: the cloud of gas and dust around its nucleus.^[7][9][10]
5. (archaic) The tuft of flax, wool or hemp on a distaff.^[7][9][17]
6. (archaic) The plume of a helmet.^[9][10][8]

Word family

• chiomato
• chiomoso

Related words

• coma
• cometa
• Ancient Greek κόμη (kómē)

Usage notes

The plural chiome is used in poetry with the same sense as the singular.^[15][3] A separate chioma “flood tide” is recorded in Taranto, and Alessio derives it from a regional Latin word taken from Ancient Greek ἁπλῶμα (haplôma, “spreading”).^[12][11] Tuscan also has a chioma “stain” on clothes, compared with chiosa.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 279
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 16, 865
12. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 906
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
15. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 88