cimento

Forms

cimento m (plural cimenti)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cimentum, a variant of Latin caementum (“quarried stone, rubble”) recorded in glosses that translate Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix, “gravel”).^[2][3][4] Already in Late Latin the word meant “lime mortar”, because Roman masons mixed chips of marble into the mortar, and the Vulgate uses it so.^[2] This sense survives in French ciment, Occitan ciment and Catalan ciment, and in the dialects of northern Italy, while Spanish cimiento and Portuguese cimento mean “foundation”.^[2][5] The popular form with ⟨ci-⟩ stands beside learned cemento.^[2][5]

From a mixture of brick dust and salt used to refine gold, the word passed to the assay itself and then to “trial, risk”.^[6][5][7] The DEI and the GDLI take the figurative sense rather as a noun from the verb cimentare.^[4][8] Diez had proposed Vulgar Latin *specimentum (“test”) instead, which Meyer-Lübke also listed, but the LEI, DELI and Nocentini follow the Latin word for rubble.^{[9][10][2][6]}

The Latin noun is formed from caedō (“to cut, fell”) with the suffix -mentum.^[11][1][12] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eid- (“to cut, hew”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is Sienese: the Fatti di Cesare, before 1313, use cimento for a paste of lime, water and sand or gravel that binds stones and bricks together.^[2] The TLIO's first record of the goldsmith's sense, a mixture of brick dust and salt used to refine gold, is the Florentine Ottimo commento on Dante's Purgatorio of 1334.^[7] Pegolotti, before 1347, explains that “cimento is two things, that is, brick and salt”.^[6][8]

Semantic evolution

Mettere a cimento first meant to put gold through refining, so as to separate it from other metals, and already in Old Italian the noun was used figuratively for what purifies and for a dangerous test.^[7] Leonardo wrote that true gold is known in the cimento.^[13] Cellini describes the recipe: wine tartar and crushed brick, with the gold pieces heated between layers for twenty-four hours until they reach twenty-four carats.^[8] The sense “trial, risk” appears before 1540 in Guicciardini, and the verb cimentare followed, first for refining gold (before 1537, Biringuccio), then for putting something to the test or at risk (before 1565, Varchi).^[6]

In the 17th century the word meant experiment: the Accademia del Cimento, founded in Florence in 1657 by Leopoldo de' Medici, took its name from it, with the motto Provando e riprovando, “trying and trying again”.^[14][13][15] In literary Italian it also means a fight or challenge, as in Foscolo's a cimento orrido “to a dreadful contest”.^[3][14] The northern dialects kept the sense “mortar, lime”.^[2] Italian cimento “cement” passed into Ottoman Turkish, Albanian, Armenian and Greek (τσιμέντο (tsiménto)).^[1]

Timeline

• Before 1313 – Cimento “mortar” in the Sienese Fatti di Cesare.^[2]
• 1334 – The goldsmith's sense in the Florentine Ottimo commento.^[7]
• Before 1347 – Pegolotti describes the mixture of brick and salt.^[6][8]
• Before 1537 – Biringuccio uses cimentare for refining gold.^[6]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses cimento for “trial, risk”.^[6]
• Before 1565 – Varchi uses cimentare for putting to the test.^[6]
• 1657 – The Accademia del Cimento is founded in Florence.^[14][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A demanding or risky trial or test: La traversata in solitaria fu per lui un cimento durissimo.^{[3][14][16][13]}
2. (literary) A fight, challenge or contest;^[3][14][16] il cimento delle armi, battle.^[3][14][16]
3. (goldsmithing, historical) A mixture used to assay or refine precious metals.^{[3][14][16][17][1]}
4. (archaic) An assay or experiment.^[14][17][13]
5. (engineering) stress: cimento dinamico.^[14][13]

Word family

• cimentare
• cimentoso

Related words

• cemento
• Latin caementum
• French ciment

Usage notes

Mettere a cimento means to put at risk or to put to a hard test.^[13][17][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9, 654
3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 939
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli