fumaiolo

Forms

fumaiolo m (plural fumaioli)^[1] Old and literary forms include Old Italian fumaiuolo and Old Italian fummaiuolo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin fūmāriolum, a word of Tertullian, diminutive of Latin fūmārium (“smoke room”).^[4][5][3][1] Devoto–Oli and Devoto's etymological primer posit a Vulgar Latin *fumariolum, whose ending developed as Tuscan regularly turns Latin -ārius into -aio.^[6][7] Wiktionary also allows that it is from Italian fumo + -aiolo.^[1]

The Latin noun was a smoke room, where wine was stored to mature or wood was dried; it is formed from fūmus (“smoke”) with -ārium.^[8][5][1] Its outcomes include Romanian fumar, Old Occitan fumier and Portuguese fumeiro.^[9] De Vaan derives the word for smoke from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuh₂-mó- (“smoke”), the source also of Ancient Greek θυμός (thūmós, “spirit”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giovanni Villani, before 1348, for the part of a chimney that rises above the roof.^[2][11] He tells of an earthquake in Venice in which countless fummaiuoli, ovvero cammini fell, “chimney pots, or chimneys”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In 1794 Spallanzani used fumaiuoli for lasting columns of smoke rising high into the air.^[11] With steam power the word passed to the funnel of steamships and locomotives, and it is preferred to comignolo for the tall chimneys of factories.^[12]

By analogy it names the fissure of a volcano or a solfatara that gives off a fumarola, and the fumarole itself.^[12][5] In Tuscany it also means a piece of wood that has only partly turned to charcoal.^[5][6]

Timeline

• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses fummaiuoli for chimney pots.^[2][11]
• 1794 – Spallanzani uses fumaiuoli for columns of smoke.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The top of a flue rising above the roof; a chimney pot.^[5][6][13]
2. The tall chimney of a factory or industrial plant.^[5][6]
3. The funnel of a ship or steam locomotive.^[5][13][1]
4. (geology) A fissure from which a fumarole issues; the fumarole itself.^[5][13][6]
5. (Tuscan) A partly charred, smoking piece of wood.^[5][6]
6. A peg used to open holes in a charcoal kiln.^[6]

Related words

• fumarola
• fumo
• comignolo
• Latin fumarium

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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 443
4. ^ 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 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
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse