ebbio

Forms

ebbio m (plural ebbi)^[1] Old forms include iebi, gebi, gebbi and lebbio.^[2][3] The variants lebbio and nebbio are still used, and the learned form is ebulo.^[1][4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ebulum (“danewort”) (also ebulus), through the syncopated form *eblum with the loss of the vowel before /l/, and /bl/ became Italian /bbj/.^[1][7][8][3] Sabatini–Coletti call it the popular form beside the learned ebulo, and GDLI a semi-learned one.^[5][9]

The Latin word survives in every Romance language except Romanian: French hièble, Old Occitan evol, Catalan évol, and later Spanish ébulo and Portuguese ébulo.^[3][8][10] Northern Italian dialects have forms such as Venetian geolo in Verona and Friulian heul.^[10][11] DÉRom reconstructs it only for the Italo-Western branch of Proto-Romance, since Sardinian and Romanian have no trace of it.^[12] In much of Gaul and northern Italy it competed with Gaulish odocos, which mixed with it in Spanish yezgo and Portuguese engo.^[13][10] It also passed into Breton evl and Old English eofole.^[13]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European *h₁edʰ-l(o)- (“kind of tree”), with cognates in Old Prussian addle and Lithuanian ẽglė (“spruce, fir”).^[14][8] Wiktionary finds the link likely but the sense different, and allows that it may be a European substrate word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's first record is the plural iebi in a central Italian translation of Rusio's treatise on farriery, about 1307; the TLIO's first is a Florentine statute of 1310–1313.^[3][2] The sense is the plant danewort.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The plant was used in medicine and veterinary practice: the Italian translation of Crescenzi says that the bark of its roots and its tops purge phlegm, and the Italian Palladio counts it among the weeds that show a soil fit for grain.^[9][6] In the dialects of the Alps, from Ticino eastward, the same Latin word names the laburnum, and elsewhere other plants.^[3]

Timeline

• About 1307 – The plural iebi appears in a central Italian translation of Rusio.^[3]
• 1310–1313 – A Florentine statute has ebbio.^[2]
• About 1350 – The Italian translation of Crescenzi describes its medicinal uses.^[3][9]
• 1556 – Luigi Alamanni uses the word.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) danewort, dwarf elder (Sambucus ebulus): a strong-smelling perennial herb like the sambuco, with white flowers and black berries, once used in veterinary and folk medicine.^{[7][15][16][17]}

Related words

• ebulo
• sambuco
• Latin ebulum

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 67
4. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 156
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
13. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1408
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)