colmo

colmo¹ full

Pronunciation

• /ˈkol.mo/^[1]

Forms

colmo (feminine colma, masculine plural colmi, feminine plural colme)^[1]

Etymology

The word for “full” is a shortened past participle from Italian colmare (“to fill”), used without the participle ending, beside the regular participle colmato.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Wiktionary describes it as the Tuscan short participle of the verb.^[1] The verb itself is formed from the noun meaning “top” (homograph 2 below), from Latin culmen (“top, summit”), so that its first sense was “to heap up”.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record of the adjective is the Sommetta of 1284–1287, a Florentine text copied in western Tuscany, where it describes a container filled up to its capacity.^[6] DELI's first date is 1304, in the sermons of Fra Giordano: “Le misure sue sono colme e traboccanti” (his measures are full and overflowing), said of the gifts of God.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective was used of measures of grain and oil (staio colmo, moggio colmo), meaning a measure reckoned with the container heaped full, and figuratively of something fully achieved or perfect.^[6] Petrarch wrote “Passa la nave mia colma d'oblio” (my ship passes, laden with oblivion).^[7][8] From his time on the word is common for a heart or mind filled with a feeling.^[7][8]

The phrase la misura è colma (the measure is full) came to mean that patience has reached its limit.^[7][5][9] Tommaseo noted that colmo says more than pieno: hence the pairing pieno colmo, “full to overflowing”.^[8] The sense “convex, rounded” is now uncommon.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1284–1287 – The Sommetta has the first recorded use of the adjective.^[6]
• 1304 – Fra Giordano speaks of the “full and overflowing” measures of God.^[2][7]
• 14th century – Petrarch's nave colma d'oblio.^[7][8]
• 1974 – The intensive stracolmo “crammed full” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. full to the brim, brimming; with di, filled or heaped with something: un cesto colmo di mele.^{[10][5][11][12]}
2. (figurative) Filled with a feeling: colmo di gratitudine.^[10][5] In the set phrase la misura è colma, one's patience is at an end.^[10][5][9]
3. (literary) Highest, utmost.^[5]
4. (uncommon) Rounded outwards, convex.^[10][11][9]

Word family

• stracolmo

colmo² top

Etymology tree of colmo²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin columen

Latin culmen

Italian colmo

From the same root · colmo²

Latin columna ← columen

Latin culminō ← culmen

Pronunciation

• /ˈkol.mo/^[1]

Forms

colmo m (plural colmi)^[1] Old Italian forms include cholmo, Old Italian comol, Old Italian cormo, Old Italian culmo and Old Italian culmu.^[6]

Etymology

The word for the top or summit is inherited from Latin cŭlmen (“top, summit; ridge of a roof”), which passed into the nouns in ⟨-o⟩.^{[2][3][10][11][13]} Zingarelli and Gabrielli take it from the Latin nominative.^[12][14] Wiktionary suggests that the sound of cumulus (“heap”) or culmus (“stalk”) may have influenced the form, and Tommaseo already compared both.^[1][8] It is the popular form beside the learned doublet culmine.^[11][1]

The same word is Romanian culme, Old French coume, Spanish cumbre and Portuguese cume.^[3][15] Körting thought the Spanish form may have been shaped after the word for “heap”.^[16] DEI calls the word pan-Romance and well represented in the Italian dialects.^[17]

The Latin word is a later form of columen (“top; pillar”), and DEI suggests an old mixed declension and a link with columna (“column”) and collis (“hill”).^[17][18] Nocentini also places it on the same root as the word for “hill”.^[3] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *kolamen, from Proto-Indo-European *kelH- (“to rise, be tall”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo (1282), in Aretine; the TLIO's first sense is the highest point of the roof or ceiling of a house.^[6][12] DELI's first dates are both from Dante: “the highest degree” (1304–1308) and “top, summit” (before 1321).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for the ridge of a roof, the top of a hill or of anything raised, and the rim of a container; figuratively it was what brings a bad situation to its worst point.^[6] Dante wrote of the arch of a bridge, “tenevamo il colmo” (we held the top), and of the hemisphere “sotto il cui colmo” (beneath whose summit) Christ was put to death.^[8] Boccaccio's Decameron sets a palace “in sul colmo” of a small hill.^[8][4]

From “top” came “highest degree”: il colmo della gioventù is the prime of youth, and Villani used it of the height of prosperity.^[4][19] In the 16th century the word gained the sense of the utmost degree in general.^[19] The exclamation è il colmo! (that's the limit!) expresses outrage.^[10][5][4]

Around 1900 colmo named a kind of pun printed in the newspapers;^[2] Panzini recorded it in 1905.^[2] It survives in riddles of the type qual è il colmo per…? (what is the ultimate for…?), answered with a double meaning.^[10][4][14] Building and hydraulics use the word for the ridge of a roof, the ridge tile and the peak of a flood.^[10][11][4]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses the noun for the top of a roof.^[6][12]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for the highest degree of something.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for the top or summit.^[2][8]
• 16th century – The sense “utmost degree” becomes general.^[19]
• 1892 – The derivative colma “high water” is recorded, found in Venetian in 1829.^[2]
• 1905 – Panzini records colmo as a newspaper pun.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The highest point of a curve or rise; top, summit: il colmo del poggio.^[10][5][11]
2. (figurative) The height or peak of something, the utmost degree: al colmo della rabbia.^[10][5][9] È il colmo! and questo è il colmo! express indignation.^[10][5][9] Per colmo di sfortuna means “to crown it all”.^{[10][5][12][9]}
3. A humorous riddle based on a pun, put as qual è il colmo per…?.^{[10][5][12][14]}
4. (architecture) The ridge of a pitched roof, and the beam that carries it; also the large curved ridge tile.^{[10][5][11][9]}
5. (hydraulics) The peak level of a river in flood: istante di colmo.^[10][5][12]
6. (obsolete) A sheaf.^[10][9]

Word family

• colmare
• colma
• colmata
• colmatore
• colmatura
• ricolmare
• ricolmo
• scolmare
• scolmatore
• scolmatura
• colmeggiare