cruna

Forms

cruna f (plural crune)^[1] Old Italian also had a masculine cruno.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Latin corōna (“garland, crown”), taken in the sense of “circular rim”, and so the same word as corona.^{[4][5][6][7][1]} The vowel is the difficulty: Nocentini explains the syncope of the first vowel and the ⟨u⟩ for Latin long ⟨o⟩ as a development of the Lombard and Emilian type, and Wiktionary posits Vulgar Latin *corūna.^[5][1] DEI instead takes a dialect (Oscan) form of the Latin word with long ⟨u⟩.^[3][8] Meyer-Lübke left the ⟨u⟩ unexplained.^[9] DELI, GRADIT and the TLIO mark the etymology as uncertain, and DELI points to a different view by Rohlfs.^[4][6][2] Devoto saw a crossing of the Latin word with cuna (“cradle”).^[10] Tommaseo had compared Latin crena (“notch”).^[11]

Meyer-Lübke lists Veronese, southern Italian and Velletri words for the eye of a needle among the derivatives of the Latin word.^[9] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē), which named a sea bird or crow and anything curved or hooked.^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bono Giamboni's Vizi e Virtudi (before 1292) has the first record, in the Gospel saying that a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle, so hard is it for a rich man to enter the glory of God.^[2][8][4]

Semantic evolution

The proverb of the camel and the needle carried the word through the Old Italian texts, from Guittone onwards, and later writers varied it: Gozzi has a horse to pass through the eye of a needle.^[8][11] In the Inferno Dante has figures peer at the travellers as an old tailor squints at the eye of his needle.^[8][11]

From the needle the word passed to any narrow passage: in the Purgatorio Dante calls a narrow cleft in the rock quella cruna, and the TLIO also records the narrow ninth circle of Hell, the notch of an arrow, the central point that is hard to hit, and figuratively the loss of virginity.^[2][6][13] Old Italian also used it for the highest point of a mountain, as Boccaccio did.^[2][3] Today the figurative sense of a narrow, difficult passage is literary.^[14][15]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses cruna for the eye of a needle.^[2][4]
• 13th century – The masculine cruno is recorded.^[3]
• 14th century – The feminine cruna is recorded in DEI's dating.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The eye of a needle, the small hole through which the thread passes: Non riesco a far passare il filo nella cruna.^{[6][16][13][1]}
2. (figurative, literary) A narrow and difficult passage.^[6][13][14]

Word family

• incrunatura
• rincrunare

Related words

• corona

Usage notes

The saying è più facile che un cammello passi per la cruna di un ago (it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle) is recorded in many forms since the 13th century.^[8][11] Tommaseo also gives the Tuscan proverb stretto come una cruna d'ago (as narrow as a needle's eye).^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1179
4. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier