drappo

Forms

drappo m (plural drappi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian drapo, northern Old Italian drap and, with ⟨t-⟩, Old Italian trapo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin drappus (“cloth, rag”), first recorded in the Latin translation of Oribasius.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} The Latin word is also found in the 6th-century life of Caesarius of Arles and in Carolingian capitularies.^[1][8] It appears as Medieval Latin drapus at Bologna in 1194.^[3]

The same word is French drap, Occitan drap and Catalan drap, and with ⟨t-⟩ Spanish trapo and Portuguese trapo “rag”.^[4][6][9] DEI places it in northern Italy and the western Romance languages.^[7]

Its origin is disputed.^[3][1] Most Italian dictionaries call it probably Celtic: Nocentini points to the Gaulish personal names Drappo and Drappus, DEI proposes Proto-Celtic *drapno-, and REW, following Brüch, suggests the Gaulish counterpart of Lithuanian drapanà (“garment”).^{[4][7][6][3][10]} Wiktionary favours a Germanic source, Frankish *drāpi (“fulled cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to beat, strike”), with the variant trapus perhaps influenced by *trabu (“cloth, thread, rag”).^[1] Diez had thought of Old High German trabo (“fringe”), and Gröber of a foreign word that was neither Greek, Celtic nor Germanic.^[8][9] Pagliaro's link with a Persian ⟨*drapp⟩ is considered obscure.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, from the last quarter of the 12th century, in the sense of a fine woollen or silk fabric.^[2] DELI's first Italian date is Dante, 1293–1294, and Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, has the sense “sumptuous garment”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian drappo was both the fine cloth and a piece of it made into something: a garment, a handkerchief, a coverlet, an altar cloth, a hanging.^[2][5] Dante's Inferno compares colours that non fer mai drappi Tartari né Turchi (“Tartars and Turks never made in their cloths”).^[11] It was also the silk banner given as a prize in races, as in Dante's runners che corrono a Verona il drappo verde (“who race for the green cloth at Verona”).^[10][12][5]

The diminutive drappello first meant a small flag, then the troop that followed it.^[6][13] Merchants' words followed: drappiere, a maker or seller of cloth, before 1292, and drapperia, cloth-making, in 1332.^[3] The verb drappeggiare is in Cennini, and the noun drappeggio in Dossi, 1873–1885.^[3] It once meant above all fine silk cloth; today it is mostly a heavy cloth for furnishing, and in geophysics a curtain-shaped aurora.^[14][10]

Timeline

• 6th century – Latin drappus appears in the life of Caesarius of Arles.^[1]
• Last quarter of the 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use the word.^[2]
• 1194 – Medieval Latin drapus is recorded at Bologna.^[3]
• 1255 – Medieval Latin drapperius “cloth merchant” is recorded at Parma.^[3]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses drappo.^[3]
• 1332 – Drapperia appears in the statute of the Calimala guild.^[3]
• 1873–1885 – Drappeggio appears in Dossi.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fine, costly fabric, formerly silk, used for vestments, hangings and rich clothing: un drappo di velluto rosso.^{[5][10][12][14]}
2. (by extension) Cloth in general.^[5][15]
3. (archaic, chiefly plural) A garment, clothes.^[5][10][12]
4. (archaic) The silk palio given as a prize to the winners of a race.^[5][10][15]
5. (archaic) A silk kerchief worn by women on the shoulders or head; an altar cloth.^[5][15][16]
6. (geophysics) A curtain-like form of the aurora.^[10][14]

Word family

• drappello
• drappeggiare
• drappeggio
• drapperia
• drappiere
• drappella
• indrappellare
• drappicello

Related words

• sparadrappo
• French drap
• Latin drappus

Usage notes

Drappo marino is a zoological name for the periostraco.^[14][5] Drappo inglese was 18th-century medical taffeta, sticking plaster.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1392
8. ^ a b Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 1004
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 392
14. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli