ghiara

Forms

ghiara f (plural ghiare)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian giara and Old Italian glara.^[2] The northern dialects have giara.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin glārea (“gravel”), an old and northern variant of ghiaia.^[4][3][1] The TLIO treats it under the standard form.^[2] The form Medieval Latin glara is recorded at Padua in the 13th century.^[3]

The Latin word has outcomes across Romance: Romansh glera, Friulian glerya, Occitan glaira, Catalan glera and Portuguese leira.^[5][4] Italian greto “gravelly riverbed” comes from it too.^[4][5]

The Latin word is recorded from Cato on, and its origin is much debated.^[6] De Vaan suggests it may share the root of Latin grānum (“grain”), with dissimilation of ⟨r⟩ to ⟨l⟩, but calls this dependent on the original meaning of the word for grain.^[7] Wiktionary also lists Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to form into a ball”) and Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to stick”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record of ghiara is in Fazio degli Uberti (before 1367), where the Tiber carries its gravel down from Borgo San Sepolcro.^[6][8] The DEI dates the word only from the 16th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word named the small pebbles that rivers carry and leave behind.^[2] Leonardo da Vinci used it in his notes on rivers and boats, and Ariosto wrote of a place with no trees, ma nuda ghiara (“only bare gravel”).^[8][9] Tommaseo records it also for the part of a river bed left dry and covered with stones.^[9] Pascoli still used it, and the Treccani vocabulary marks it as old or northern.^[8][10] It survives in the place name ⟨Ghiara d'Adda⟩.^[3][9] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli treat it as an archaic or northern variant of the standard word.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 13th century – Medieval Latin glara is recorded at Padua.^[3]
• Before 1367 – Fazio degli Uberti uses ghiara.^[6]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses the form ghiaia.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic, regional) gravel, the same as ghiaia: Le barche erano tirate in secco sulla ghiara.^[1][12][10]

Word family

• ghiareto
• ghiaroso

Related words

• ghiaia
• ghiaioso
• greto
• Latin glārea

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1798
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ 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
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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, 734
9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET