fiume

Forms

fiume m (plural fiumi)^[1] Old plurals are Old Italian fiumi, Old Italian fiumina and Old Italian fiumora.^[2][3][4] Older forms are Old Italian flume, Old Italian fiumo and Old Italian fiome, and the word could be feminine.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin flūmen (“flowing water, river”).^[6][7][8][1] DELI and GRADIT write the Latin word with its final consonant in brackets, since the Italian comes from a form without it.^[6][9] The Latin noun was formed from fluō (“to flow”) with the suffix -men.^[10][1][7] De Vaan derives the verb from Proto-Italic *flow-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰlewH- (“to flow over”), with cognates in Ancient Greek φλέω (phléō, “to abound”) and Ancient Greek φλύω (phlúō, “to boil over”).^[11]

The word was once found across Romance but not in Romanian: Old French flum, Old Occitan flum and Logudorese flumin.^[8][12] Its rival Latin fluvius gave French fleuve, and Ibero-Romance uses Spanish río and Portuguese rio instead.^[13][8] Medieval Latin fluviolus is still recorded at Piacenza in the 10th century.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century, and Sabatini–Coletti has flumo in the 12th century.^[4][5][7] The sense is a permanent watercourse.^[4] DELI's first date is Bono Giamboni (before 1292), who writes that armies are often forced to swim across rivers swollen by rain or snow.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used fiume for any great flow, of tears or of blood, and figuratively for an abundance: fiume di scienza was a very learned person, and Dante and Petrarch speak of a river of eloquence.^[4][14] The saying that rivers will flow back to the hills described something impossible.^[4] The sense “riverbed” is recorded in 1697.^[6] Diminutives are old: fiumicello is recorded in 986, and fiumana (1310–1312) and fiumara (before 1348) follow; in southern Italy fiumara is a torrent that runs only after rain.^[6][14]

After a noun, fiume came to mean “extremely long”.^[6][9] Romanzo fiume (1942) renders French roman-fleuve, a term of André Maurois of 1929; it was followed by arringa fiume for the long pleas of defence lawyers (from late 1947) and seduta fiume, first for the 51-hour sitting of the Chamber that approved the Atlantic Pact.^[6]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the word.^[4]
• 986 – The diminutive fiumicello is recorded.^[14]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses fiume.^[6]
• Early 14th century – The sense “great quantity” appears in the translation of Cassian.^[6]
• 1697 – Guglielmini uses fiume for a riverbed.^[6]
• 1929 – André Maurois coins French roman-fleuve.^[6]
• 1942 – Romanzo fiume is recorded in Italian.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A river, a large natural stream of water with a fairly constant flow: Il fiume è uscito dagli argini dopo le piogge.^[9][15][5]
2. (hyperbolic) A great flow of a liquid: Dalla tubatura rotta usciva un fiume d'acqua.^[9][15][5]
3. (figurative) A great quantity or an unbroken stream of people or things, a fiumi, in great quantity.^[9][5][16]
4. The bed of a river.^[2][17]

Adjective

1. (invariable, after a noun) Very long, lasting beyond the usual: un'intervista fiume.^[9][15][5]

Word family

• fiumana
• fiumara
• fiumicello
• fiumiciattolo
• fiumale
• oltrefiume

Related words

• fluire
• fluviale
• Latin flūmen

Usage notes

The proverb tutti i fiumi vanno al mare says that things follow their natural course.^[2][16] Fiume is also the Italian name of the Croatian city of Rijeka.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
5. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1661
9. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
14. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 448
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli