Etymologically
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fiamma

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Pronunciation

Forms

fiamma f (plural fiamme)[1] Earlier forms include Old Italian flamma, Old Italian flama, Old Italian fiama and Old Italian fiamba.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin flamma.[3][4][5][1] The word is pan-Romance: French flamme (borrowed as English flame and German Flamme), Occitan flama, Catalan flama, Spanish llama, Portuguese chama, Sardinian fiama and Romanian flamă (“drought”).[4][6] Meyer-Lübke adds Friulian flame.[6]

Latin flamma comes from Proto-Italic *flagmā, from the same root as flagrō (“to blaze”) and, with another vowel, fulgeō (“to flash”).[4][7][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥g-mh₂- (“flame”), from the zero grade of *bʰl̥g- (“to shine”), beside the o-grade of Ancient Greek φλογμός (phlogmós, “flame”).[7][1] Devoto explains the double /m/ as an expressive doubling of an earlier *flāma.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT's first date is before 1250, in Giacomo da Lentini, for the figurative sense of ardent love.[5][3] The literal sense, a tongue of fire from burning gas, is first recorded in Bono Giamboni, before 1292.[3] Nocentini dates the word to the early 13th century, and the TLIO's first text is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used fiamma in many set phrases: mettere a fuoco e a fiamma, “to lay waste with fire”, a ferro e a fiamma, “with sword and fire”, and the giudizio delle fiamme, “death at the stake”.[2] Figurative senses were early: love (before 1250), the person loved (before 1333, Simintendi) and a bright red colour (before 1348, Giovanni Villani).[3] Dante's line conosco i segni dell'antica fiamma (“I know the signs of the old flame”) is often quoted.[9]

From its shape the word also named a long, narrow pennant flown from a ship's mast (before 1580, Vincenzo Borghini) and, in the plural, the coloured collar patches that tell military corps apart (1918).[3] The phrase nuovo fiammante, “brand new” (before 1652), started from coins shining fresh from the mint;[3][4] fiammata, a quick blaze (1699) and a brief burst of feeling (1892), comes from the old verb fiammare.[3][4]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses fiamma for ardent love.[3][5]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for a flame.[3]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses fiammeggiare and fiammeggiante.[3]
  • Before 1333 – Simintendi uses it for a beloved person.[3]
  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for a bright red colour.[3]
  • Before 1580 – Vincenzo Borghini uses it for a ship's pennant.[3]
  • 1918 – The plural fiamme is recorded for military collar patches.[3]
  • 1956 – Fiamma is recorded for a steelworker who cuts scrap with a torch.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A flame, a tongue of burning gas: Abbassa la fiamma sotto la pentola..[5][10][9]
  2. (chiefly plural) Fire, a blaze: andare in fiamme, to catch fire, dare alle fiamme, to set on fire.[5][10][11]
  3. (figurative) An intense feeling, passion or ardour: la fiamma della fede.[5][9][11]
  4. (colloquial) A sweetheart, a person one is in love with: Alla festa ha incontrato una sua vecchia fiamma.[5][10][11]
  5. A bright red colour; as an invariable adjective, flame-red: rosso fiamma.[10][9][11]
  6. A pennant; a triangular flag in the national colours flown by ships, (military) a flame-shaped collar patch.[9][3][1]
  7. (chemistry) The light and heat produced by rapid oxidation of a fuel: fiamma ossiacetilenica.[9][5]

Word family

  • fiammata
  • fiammante
  • fiammeggiare
  • fiammeggiante
  • fiammato
  • fiammella
  • fiammifero
  • infiammare
  • infiammabile
  • infiammazione
  • sfiammare

Usage notes

Fiamma is also a masculine invariable noun, il fiamma (1956), for a steelworker who cuts scrap iron with an oxyacetylene torch, also called fiammista.[5][10][9] GDLI records fiamma as a Tuscan name of broomrape, a parasitic plant that leaves its hosts looking scorched, and of the fish Cepola.[12] Ritorno di fiamma is a backfire in an engine and, figuratively, the rekindling of an old passion.[11][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 n o 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 d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 907
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli