cuoiame

Forms

cuoiame m (plural cuoiami)^[1] Old Italian forms include coiame, corame, curame and choiame.^[2] Coiame is still given as a variant.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin *coriāmen (“leather”), a collective in -āmen from Latin corium (“leather, hide”).^[5][1] Medieval Latin records coriāmen.^[6][7] Most modern dictionaries describe it instead as formed within Italian, from Italian cuoio + -ame.^[8][9][3][4] The form corame, which kept the vowel /o/, comes from the same Latin word.^[5][1]

The Latin word survives across Romance: Sardinian coramen in Logudorese, Romansh küram in the Engadine, Old French cuirien, Catalan cuyram and Spanish corambre.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Sienese document of 1277–1282, where the word means a quantity of leather or animal hides.^[2] DELI dates coiame from Antonio Pucci, before 1388, and cuoiame only from a Tuscan tariff of 1781.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used it figuratively and with contempt for human skin.^[2] Pucci's Centiloquio tells how Frederick had a gold coin struck to pay those who were owed for leather.^[7] In the trade lists of Florence and the carnival songs coiame stands beside salt, iron, oil, wool and silk as a commodity.^[7] Carena described coiame as the same as cuoio but with something collective in its use, and that collective sense, an assortment of leather or of leather goods, is the modern one.^[7][8][9]

Timeline

• 1277–1282 – A Sienese document records the word.^[2]
• Before 1388 – Antonio Pucci uses coiame.^[10][8]
• 1781 – The form cuoiame appears in a Tuscan tariff.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A quantity or assortment of leather or of leather goods: un magazzino pieno di cuoiami.^[8][3][4][1]
2. Tanned hides taken together.^[9]

Related words

• cuoio
• cuoiaio
• corame
• Latin corium

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1191
7. ^ 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, p. 3
8. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli