fune

Forms

fune f (plural funi)^[1] Old Italian also had the forms fone, funa and funo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fūnis (“rope, cable”), continued from its accusative.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin noun survives across the Romance languages^[6] and also gave Old French fun and Romanian funie;^[4][7] it passed into Basque as well.^[6]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[3][5] Nocentini and de Vaan connect it with fīlum (“thread”), whose meaning is very close: de Vaan takes it as an o-grade derivative of the same root and reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰoiH-ni- (“rope”).^[4][8] Wiktionary instead suggests Proto-Italic *fūdnis from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to bind”), comparing Ancient Greek πεῖσμα (peîsma, “rope, cable”).^[1] Battisti and Alessio saw a Mediterranean relic of the Tyrrhenian area, matching Ancient Greek σχοινίς (skhoinís, “rope of rushes”), from σχοῖνος (skhoînos, “rush”), with the loss of initial s- that they also find in Latin capis beside σκαφίς (skaphís).^[6]

The Latin noun was masculine with a drift towards the feminine, like fīnis, and Old Italian used the word in both genders.^[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Brunetto Latini's Florentine Tesoretto, written before 1274, where the word means a braid of twisted strands used to tie, hold up or pull.^[2] GRADIT dates the word to about 1250, Zingarelli to 1266, and DELI's first record is Giamboni, before 1292.^[5][10][3] Giamboni tells of a second bridge over the Rhône legato con funi e catene (“tied with ropes and chains”).^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the rope in many trades and figures: the cord a friar wore in place of a girdle, the halyards and sheets of a ship, the string of a crossbow, a braid of plant fibres holding seeds for sowing, and a line for measuring depth or height.^[2] It was also the rope of hanging and of torture, and figuratively a bond: tirare la fune meant to work towards a result, rompere la fune to die, and legare la lingua con la fune to silence someone.^[2] Petrarch speaks of loosening queste funa, the bonds of his troubles.^[5]

In the 15th century Landino noted that Tuscan did not keep the Latin distinction between fune, a rope of hemp or similar material, and corda, a Greek word for the gut strings of instruments.^[9] In modern use fune is mostly a synonym of corda for thicker ropes, whether of fibre or of steel, while sailors prefer cavo or cima.^[11] Technical language distinguishes many kinds, such as fune a trefoli and fune portante.^[11][10]

Derivatives include funaiolo, a rope maker or seller, from the 14th century, funicolare (adjective 1766, noun “funicular railway” 1861) and funivia, “cableway”, coined on the model of ferrovia.^[3][4] Nocentini dates funivia to 1942, Prati to about 1930.^[4][12]

Timeline

• Before 1274 – Brunetto Latini uses fune in the Tesoretto.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Giamboni writes of a bridge tied with funi.^[3][9]
• 14th century – Funaiolo, a rope maker, appears in the statutes of the silk guild.^[3]
• 1766 – The adjective funicolare is first recorded.^[4]
• 1861 – Funicolare is used as a noun for a funicular railway.^[4]
• 1942 – Nocentini's date for funivia, “cableway”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thick, strong rope or cable made of plant, synthetic or metal strands twisted together, used to lift, haul or tie: Le funi della teleferica sono state cambiate.^{[5][13][14][10]}
2. (sports) A climbing rope hung from the ceiling of a gym.^{[5][13][14][10]}
3. (figurative, literary) A bond or tie; a constraint.^[5]
4. (historical) The rope used as an instrument of torture;^{[5][14][10][13]} (obsolete) a whip.^{[5][14][10][13]}

Word family

• funaiolo
• funaio
• funaro
• funicella
• funicolare
• funivia
• funata
• funame
• controfune
• infunare

Related words

• funicolo
• filo
• corda
• Latin fūnis

Usage notes

Tiro alla fune is the tug of war, a contest between two teams pulling the ends of a long rope.^[10][11][15] In old Italian the plural could also be funa and the noun could be masculine, as in Petrarch's ’l fune avolto.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 g h 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1734
7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 455
10. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 471
13. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli