corba

Forms

corba f (plural corbe)^[1] Old Italian forms include chorba and corva.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cŏrbis (“basket”),^[3][4][5][1] through a spoken form *corba of the first declension.^[6][7][8] The GDLI explains the feminine in ⟨-a⟩ from the attested diminutive corbula.^[9]

The same word is Occitan corba, Old Occitan corp and Logudorese korve.^[4][10] Latin corbis was borrowed into Old High German chorp, the source of modern German Korb, which passed on to Russian короб (kórob).^[4][10][11] Romanian corfă is a separate loan from the Saxon German of Transylvania.^[10]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[1][12] DELI and GRADIT call it pre-Indo-European, and the DEI a Mediterranean word like other names of woven objects.^[3][5][11] Nocentini thinks it probably belongs with curvus (“bent”), after the bent withies of the basket.^[4] De Vaan sets up Proto-Italic *korfi- and compares Lithuanian kar̃bas (“basket”) and Proto-Slavic *korbъ, but notes that the root shape is irregular for Indo-European and points to a loanword, and that many scholars see the Balto-Slavic words as borrowed.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin corba is recorded at Piacenza in the 13th century.^[3] The first Italian record in the TLIO is a Venetian document of 1300, and DELI's is from Perugia in 1325, for a wicker basket used to hold or carry farm produce.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word for a measure of capacity for grain and other dry goods.^[2][11] The Bolognese corba was such a measure.^[7][8][5] The modern dictionaries disagree about its size: GRADIT and Devoto–Oli give 78.6 cubic metres, Zingarelli about 80 litres.^[5][7][13] Simintendi's translation of Ovid tells how often Vertumnus carried ears of grain nella corba (“in the basket”).^[9] In shipbuilding, especially in the yards of the northern Adriatic, corba is a rib of the hull.^[7][8] The DEI dates this sense from the 16th century, and it is found in Venetian documents from 1263.^[11][7][14]

The diminutive corbello is older than corba in the record, from an early 12th-century Pisan charter.^[3] From the 18th century it was also a euphemism for coglioni “testicles; fools”, which gave corbellare “to mock” and corbelleria “nonsense”.^[3][4] DELI also reports Lurati's view that the senses go back to the basket itself: a medieval punishment for blasphemers and thieves, called corbellare in Italian statutes, was to put them in a basket and dip it three times in water.^[3]

Timeline

• Early 12th century – corbello appears in a Pisan charter.^[3]
• 1263 – The shipbuilding sense is found in Venetian documents.^[14][11]
• 13th century – Medieval Latin corba is recorded at Piacenza.^[3]
• 1300 – corba appears in a Venetian document.^[2]
• 1325 – corba is recorded at Perugia.^[3][5]
• 14th century – The word is used for a measure of capacity.^[11]
• Before 1584 – corbelleria is recorded in A. F. Grazzini.^[3]
• Before 1712 – corbellare “to mock” is recorded in F. Moneti.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large, tall basket woven of wicker or thin chestnut branches, usually with handles.^[5][7][8] By extension, a basketful.^{[5][7][8][15][1]}
2. (historical) An old Bolognese measure of capacity for dry goods.^[5][7][8][1]
3. (nautical, regional) A rib of a ship's hull, set across the keel.^[5][7][8][1]

Word family

• corbello
• corbellare
• corbelleria
• corbellatore
• corbellatura
• corbella
• corbetta

Related words

• Latin corbis
• German Korb

Usage notes

The basket word has an open o (/ˈkɔr.ba/).^[1][16] A separate word corba, with a closed o (/ˈkor.ba/), also written curba, is a veterinary term for a bony swelling at the back of the hock of horses and cattle.^{[5][7][16][1]} GRADIT dates it to the 13th century and derives it from French courbe (“curve”), while Treccani derives it from an older curba, curva, probably influenced by the French word.^[5][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 117
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 764
10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1103
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. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 329
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)