ghiomo

Forms

ghiomo m (plural ghiomi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin glomus (“ball of thread”).^[2][3][1][4] The GDLI describes it as a word of Lucca and Pisa.^[5] Italian gomitolo is a variant of the same word with a double suffix.^[6][7]

The Latin noun is also continued in Old Occitan gloms and in southern Italian dialects.^[4][2] A Latin variant *glemus must be assumed for Romanian ghem and Venetian gjemo.^[8][4]

De Vaan reconstructs an s-stem Proto-Italic *glemos and a PIE neuter Proto-Indo-European *glem-o/es-, with ⟨o⟩ in Latin caused by the velar /l/ before it.^[8] He compares Old Irish glomar (“gag, curb”), Lithuanian glomóti (“to embrace”) and Old English clamm (“bond, fetter”), but also considers a substrate word for “ball” behind globus and glēba.^[8][9] Wiktionary mentions a possible root Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to form into a ball”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Statutes of Pisa of 1321, in the sense of gomitolo, a ball of thread.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Buti, before 1406, tells how Ariadne told the hero to carry uno ghiomo di filo (“a ball of thread”) into the labyrinth.^[3][5][11] DEI records the diminutive ghiomello at Pisa, and the word still lived in Pisan Tuscan.^[2] Pascoli and Viani used it in literature.^[5] The standard language uses gomitolo, and dictionaries now mark ghiomo as obsolete or Tuscan.^[3][12][13] A learned glomo was taken from the Latin noun in the 16th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 1321 – The Statutes of Pisa have ghiomo.^[10][12]
• Before 1406 – Buti uses it in his commentary on the Inferno.^[3][5]
• 16th century – Learned glomo is borrowed from Latin.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete, Tuscan) A ball of thread or yarn; gomitolo.^{[3][12][13][1]}

Word family

• gomitolo
• inghiomellarsi

Related words

• glomo
• Latin glomus
• Romanian ghem

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1800
3. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 740
6. ^ 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana