garofano

Forms

garofano m (plural garofani)^[1] Old and regional forms include Old Italian gherofano, Old Italian garofolo, Old Italian garofalo and Old Italian grofano.^[2][3][4][5] The regional form garofalo is still in use.^[6][7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin caryŏphyllum (“clove”), through the Late Latin form of the glosses cariophalum.^{[8][9][10][1]} A grammarian's glossary of late antiquity notes that this was how the common people pronounced the word.^[5] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek καρυόφυλλον (karuóphullon), which is recorded only late, in the physician Alexander of Tralles in the 6th century.^[5][11] Pliny already uses the Latin word for an Indian spice like a peppercorn, though it may have been a different spice.^[5][11][12]

The Greek word was understood as a compound of κάρυον (káruon, “nut”) and φύλλον (phúllon, “leaf”), but this is a reinterpretation of an Eastern name.^{[8][9][10][1]} Nocentini and Mancini take it from an Old Indian compound meaning “fruit of the bud”, the clove, while Weber derived it from an Old Indian plant name meaning “with pungent fruit”.^[9][5] Cardona, quoted by DELI, thinks rather of a Dravidian word like the Tamil names of the clove.^[8] The Eastern word spread through Arabic قرنفل (qaranful) and Turkish karanfil.^[5][1]

The Italian form has the stress of the Greek word on the third syllable from the end, which popular Latin kept.^[5][4][13] The initial /k/ became /g/, which is not rare in Tuscan before /a/, and the /a/ of the third syllable goes back to the glossary form.^[7][11] A form garofalo came first, and the two liquids were then dissimilated, /r/…/l/ becoming /r/…/n/.^[6][7]

The same word is Sicilian galofaru, Venetian garofolo, Friulian garoful and French girofle, which passed into the other western Romance languages.^[14][9][11] Medieval Latin had garofalus at Verona in 1319.^[11][13] Medieval Latin passed the word on to the Germanic languages early.^[11][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first records are in Cielo d'Alcamo's Contrasto (1231–1250, a Sicilian text in a Tuscan copy) and in a Florentine version of the Antidotarium Nicolai from the end of the 13th century.^[2][9] There the word names the clove: the Eastern tree of the myrtle family and its dried flower bud, used as a spice and a medicine.^[2][13]

Semantic evolution

The clove was a well-known and widely traded drug in the Middle Ages.^[11] Dante recalls the man “who first discovered the rich custom of the clove” (che la costuma ricca / del garofano prima discoperse).^[15][5] Florentine documents and merchants' handbooks of the 14th century list gherofani and gharofani among the spices.^[5] In the 16th century the name chiodi di garofano “clove nails” came into use for the spice, probably under the influence of Portuguese cravo.^[8]

The name was extended to the garden pink and carnation, whose scent or buds were compared with the clove; the DEI dates this botanical sense to the 16th century.^[9][1][11] This has become the main sense of the word.^[10][6] A popular name for a sea anemone, garofano di mare, comes from its colour.^[13][6] In politics the red carnation was the symbol of the Italian Socialist Party until 1994, when a rose replaced it, so that il partito del garofano meant the party itself.^[3][16][10]

Timeline

• 1231–1250 – Cielo d'Alcamo's Contrasto has the word.^[2][9]
• Late 13th century – A Florentine Antidotarium Nicolai names the clove.^[2]
• 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni has gherofani and garofani.^[5]
• c. 1313 – Dante uses garofano “clove”.^[5]
• 1319 – Medieval Latin garofalus is recorded at Verona.^[11][13]
• 14th century – The Tuscan version of Marco Polo uses the word.^[8]
• 16th century – The name passes to the carnation, and chiodi di garofano appears for the spice.^[11][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. carnation, the scented flower with fringed petals, in colours that vary with the variety: un garofano bianco sul tavolo.^[10][17][1]
2. (botany) The plant that bears it, Dianthus caryophyllus.^[10][6][3]
3. (botany) pink: the common name of other plants of the genus Dianthus and of some plants of other families.^[10][4][1]
4. (cooking) In chiodo di garofano: clove, the dried flower bud of a tropical tree, used as a spice.^[3][16][4]
5. (politics) The carnation as the symbol of the Italian Socialist Party, and by extension the party itself.^[10][3]
6. (zoology) In garofano di mare: a sea anemone.^[6][3]

Word family

• garofanino
• garofanato
• garofanata
• garofanaia

Related words

• garofalo
• chiodo
• Latin caryophyllum
• French girofle

Usage notes

GRADIT lists a second garofano as a variant of garofalo, the name of a fish, and Treccani has it as a separate headword too.^[10][4] In the language of sailors a garofano (dialect garofalo) is also a whirlpool where opposing currents meet, in particular Charybdis in the Strait of Messina.^[13] The GDLI treats it as a separate word of the Mediterranean area, perhaps imitative and perhaps influenced by the flower.^[13] A pera garofana is a variety of pear.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 877
6. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1766
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana