culla

Forms

culla f (plural culle)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cūnula (“little cradle”), usually plural, a diminutive of Latin cūnae (“cradle”), also singular cūna.^[2][3][4][5] The vowel after the stress was lost, as is regular, giving Vulgar Latin *cunla.^[6][1] The older word lives on in cuna.^[1]

Other outcomes of the diminutive are Romagnol conla and Abruzzese and Neapolitan forms; the southern type with ⟨o⟩ owes its vowel to dondolare.^[5][7] The simple word survives in Spanish cuna.^[5]

De Vaan derives cūnae from Proto-Italic *koinā, an o-grade derivative of Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to lie”) meaning “lair, cradle”, like Ancient Greek κοίτη (koítē, “bed”).^[8][1] He notes that Ernout and Meillet rejected the comparison.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Florentine Fiori di filosafi of 1271–1275, for a small bed for babies that can be rocked.^[9] DELI's first date is Iacopo da Leona, before 1277.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already had fanciullo di culla, a baby, uscire di culla, to leave childhood, and in culla, too early.^[9] Dante has “l'una vegghiava a studio de la culla”, one woman watched over the cradle.^[10]

The sense “birthplace, place of origin” is recorded from before 1686, and Foscolo wrote “ebbi in quel mar la culla”, I was born by that sea.^[2][11] Dalla culla alla tomba, from the cradle to the grave, became the slogan of the British social security plan of 1942.^[10] The artillery sense, the part of the carriage on which the barrel slides back on recoil, dates from 1941.^[2] The verb cullare is recorded as qullare in 1310.^[2] From 1875 it also means to lull someone with false hopes.^[2]

Timeline

• 1271–1275 – The Fiori di filosafi use culla.^[9]
• Before 1277 – Iacopo da Leona uses culle.^[2][12]
• 1310 – The verb is recorded as qullare.^[2]
• Before 1686 – F. F. Frugoni uses culla for a place of origin.^[2]
• 1875 – Collodi uses cullare for lulling with illusions.^[2]
• 1941 – The artillery sense is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cradle, a baby's bed that can be rocked.^[4][11][13]
2. (figurative) Infancy: fin dalla culla, from birth;^[4][11][13] morire in culla, to die as a baby.^[4][11][13]
3. The act of rocking a child to sleep.^[4][11][14]
4. (figurative) A birthplace; the place where something began and grew: la culla del Rinascimento.^[4][11][13]
5. (mechanics) The part of a motorcycle frame that holds the engine.^[4][11][13]
6. (military) The cradle of a gun carriage, on which the barrel slides during recoil.^[4][11][13]

Word family

• cullare
• termoculla

Related words

• cuna
• Latin cūnae

Usage notes

Morte in culla or morte nella culla is sudden infant death syndrome.^[4][15] Battaglia and the Treccani dictionary take the sense “rocking” as a back-formation from cullare.^[12][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1187
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana