colomba

Forms

colomba f (plural colombe)^[1] Other old forms are Old Italian colonba, Old Italian cholomba, Old Italian columba and Old Italian colunba.^[2] Old Genoese had coromba and Old Lombard colonba.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin columba (“dove, pigeon”), the feminine beside columbus.^[4][5][6][1] DELI treats it under colombo, the masculine.^[4] In Latin the feminine was the more frequent form, whatever the sex of the bird.^[3]

The feminine survives in French colombe, Old Occitan colomba, Catalan coloma, Friulian colombe and Romansh columba.^[3][5] Portuguese columba is a learned word.^[3][5] The LEI says the Latin word lives on everywhere in Romance except in Romanian and Spanish, while Nocentini lists Romanian corombă.^[3][5] In Italy the masculine type holds the north and Tuscany, while the centre and south mostly continue palumbus.^[3]

The origin of the Latin word is debated.^[7][5][1] De Vaan compares Balto-Slavic words for “blue” and “dove”, such as Old Prussian golimban (“blue”), which point to a stem meaning “blue”, and the bird would be named for the colour of its plumage.^[7] He adds that a link with Latin would need an irregular change of the first consonant.^[7] Nocentini and DELI also see the name of a dark colour in it.^[5][4] Ancient Greek κόλυμβος (kólumbos, “small diving bird”) is close in form.^[7][8] Wiktionary takes the Latin word from it, de Vaan finds it further removed in meaning.^[1][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Andrea da Grosseto, a Tuscan writer, in 1268, where it names the female of the colombo, a white and gentle bird.^[2] Old Italian also used it for the bird whatever its sex.^[2] DELI's first record is in Guittone, before 1294.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start Italian used colomba for any bird of the genus Columba, especially the domestic pigeon, and not only for the female.^[3] Dante's lovers in the fifth canto of the Inferno come “like doves called by desire” (Quali colombe dal disio chiamate), and the vernacular Bible bids the faithful be “simple as doves” (semplici come colombe).^[9]

The bird stood for love in pagan art, as Venus's bird, and then for the Holy Spirit in Christian art.^[10] In Christian literature it also stood for the Virgin, for Christ or for the soul taken up to heaven, and it became a symbol of innocence, purity and peace.^[11] From this a gentle, innocent woman could be called a colomba, sometimes ironically.^[11][6]

The 20th century added new senses.^[4][12] Panzini used colomba for a kind of bomber aircraft, translating German Taube (1914).^[13] The dove-shaped Easter cake is recorded in 1942.^[4] In politics colomba became a calque of English dove in the 1960s, first for those who wanted peace in Vietnam, then for anyone on the conciliatory side, as opposed to the falco (hawk).^[4][14][15]

Timeline

• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses colomba, the first record in the TLIO.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone uses the word.^[4][9]
• c. 1313 – Dante's Commedia uses colombe for doves of either sex.^[3][9]
• 1914 – Panzini uses colomba for a bomber aircraft, after German Taube.^[13]
• 1942 – The Easter cake is recorded in Panzini's dictionary.^[4]
• 1967 – The political sense appears in the magazine Tempo.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female dove or pigeon; the female of the colombo.^{[6][14][10][1]}
2. The dove as a symbol of purity and peace: la colomba della pace.^[6][14][16]
3. (religion) The dove as the symbol of the Holy Spirit.^[6][14][15]
4. (figurative) A gentle, pure, innocent person, especially a woman or girl: Sembrava una colomba, ma sapeva il fatto suo.^[6][14][11]
5. (politics) A dove: someone who favours negotiation and peaceful solutions, as opposed to a falco: Nel partito le colombe hanno avuto la meglio.^[6][14][10]
6. (cooking) A traditional Italian Easter cake shaped like a dove, topped with almonds.^[6][14][1]
7. A fountain-shaped firework.^[6]
8. (zoology) A bird of the genus Columba; with a capital, the genus itself, whose species are commonly called colombi or piccioni.^[6]

Word family

• colombella
• colombina
• colombeggiare

Related words

• colombo
• colombaia
• colombario
• falco
• Latin columba
• French colombe

Usage notes

A separate, obsolete nautical colomba meant the keel of wooden ships and small boats.^[6][11] GRADIT dates it to 1585 and calls its origin uncertain.^[6] It was Venetian, recorded in Medieval Latin at Venice in 1270 and in Venetian in 1431, and it survives in the Veneto.^[13][17][11] DEI and Devoto–Oli derive it from a Late Latin verb meaning “to dive”, from Ancient Greek κολυμβάω (kolumbáō, “I dive”).^[13][14] Sabatini–Coletti and Zingarelli give that origin only as a possibility.^[10][15] In the old sailing navy, vela di colomba was the highest of the square sails.^[14][11]

Colomba with a capital is also a small southern constellation between Canis Major and Pictor, named by the astronomer Bayer after Noah's dove.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 1126
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
13. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1018
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. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 310