ciurma

Forms

ciurma f (plural ciurme)^[1] Old Italian forms include çurma, zurma and jhusma.^[2] Regional forms are Venetian zurma, Sicilian chiurma and Neapolitan chiorma.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ligurian ciüsma, the Old Genoese form, recorded at the start of the 14th century.^[4][5][1][6] The Genoese word goes back to Vulgar Latin *clusma, a reduced form of Latin celeusma (“the rowers' chant”), which Latin took from Ancient Greek κέλευσμα (kéleusma, “command; the call that gave the rowers their stroke”).^[4][5][7][8] The Greek noun is derived from κελεύω (keleúō, “to urge on, give the stroke”).^[4][8][1]

DELI, following a dictionary of nautical terms, makes *clusma the direct source of the Neapolitan, Abruzzese and Sicilian forms and perhaps of the Portuguese ones, from which the others, the Italian word among them, would depend, though not all the routes are clear.^[7] The change of /sm/ to /rm/ is unusual: Fanciullo therefore started from a Romance adaptation *cjulma of Byzantine Greek κέλευσμα (kéleusma), which explains the Italian word easily but leaves the Genoese ciüsma and the Sicilian chiurma hard to account for.^[4] Nocentini notes that /sm/ to /rm/ is rare but not unknown in Romance, as in orma.^[4] Devoto instead assumed an epenthetic *clurima, with the /r/ from a crossing with plūrimus.^[9]

The Genoese word also gave Catalan xusma, Spanish chusma and Portuguese chusma.^[4][10] The Italian word was borrowed into French as chiourme, whence obsolete chiurm in English.^[11][12][1] Tommaseo still preferred to derive it from Latin turma (“troop”), comparing cionco beside tronco, rather than from the Greek word.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Venetian document of 1305, with the sense “the rowers of a galley”.^[2] In Florentine it appears in Giovanni Villani, who died in 1348, for the rowers of the old galleys and the lower crew of a ship: Delle dieci galee e di tutta la ciurma non iscamparono che tre galee (“Of the ten galleys and all the crew only three galleys escaped”).^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

The rowers of a galley were slaves, convicts and paid volunteers (buonevoglie), and the word for them soon carried contempt.^[13][6] Matteo Villani, who died in 1363, already used it for a rabble, and the TLIO records it for a band of armed men and even for a herd of animals.^[7][2] The pejorative ciurmaglia followed in 1545, in Pietro Aretino.^[7]

Boccaccio's Decameron and later Ariosto use the word for a ship's crew.^[14][6] In modern use it names the lower crew of a ship, excluding the officers, and since the early 20th century the crews of the tuna fisheries, the ciurma di mare at sea and the ciurma di terra on shore.^[14][8][15] In Sicily it was also used for the workers of a mine.^[6] Figuratively it is a crowd of low people, and jokingly a noisy group of friends.^[5][16]

French borrowed the word in the 14th century (chourme, chiorme 1544, ciourme before 1600).^[12]

Timeline

• Early 14th century – Old Genoese ciusma is recorded.^[4]
• 1305 – The word appears in a Venetian document.^[2]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses ciurma for the crew of the galleys.^[7]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses it for a rabble.^[7]
• 1405 – Medieval Latin churma is recorded at Rome.^[11]
• 1544 – French chiorme is recorded.^[12]
• 1545 – Aretino uses the pejorative ciurmaglia.^[7]
• 1906 – The crews of the tuna fisheries are first recorded as ciurma.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical, nautical) The rowers of a galley, made up of slaves, convicts and paid volunteers: ciurma scapola, the rowers not chained to their bench.^[5][17][18]
2. (nautical, often pejorative) The lower crew of a ship, without its officers: Il nostromo chiamò la ciurma in coperta.^[5][8][16]
3. The workers of a tuna fishery (tonnara): ciurma di mare, those at sea, and ciurma di terra, those on shore.^[15][8][16]
4. (figurative, pejorative) A rabble of low or contemptible people.^[5][15][16]
5. (humorous) A noisy group of friends: Arrivò al mare con tutta la ciurma dei cugini.^[5][16]

Word family

• ciurmaglia

Related words

• celeuma
• French chiourme
• Ancient Greek κέλευσμα (kéleusma)

Usage notes

An obsolete ciurma meaning “trickery, deceit”, the same as ciurmeria, was formed from ciurmare “to swindle” and is recorded from 1548.^[5][3][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 206
4. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 970
12. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 750
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli