giumenta

Forms

giumenta f (plural giumente)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian giomenta, Old Italian iumenta, Old Italian jumenta, Old Italian zumenta and Old Italian çumenta.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin iūmenta (“mare”), the feminine formed from Latin iūmentum (“beast of burden”).^[3][1] The feminine is found in the Kassel Glosses and in 10th-century charters of central and southern Italy, the Codex Cajetanus and the Codex Cavensis, and a document of 817 already has Medieval Latin jumente.^[3][4] DELI, Nocentini and the modern dictionaries treat the word as the feminine of giumento, and Wiktionary notes that both explanations are possible.^{[4][5][6][7][1]}

The Latin noun first meant a horse under the yoke, then a pack animal.^[4][5] It is formed from the root of iungō (“to yoke, join”).^[4][5][8] Wiktionary traces it, more tentatively, through Proto-Italic *jouksməntom to Proto-Indo-European *yewg- (“to yoke”).^[1] French jument continues the same word with the sense “mare”.^[5][1] The southern dialects keep the Latin feminine in Neapolitan jummenta and Sicilian jumenta.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Storie de Troia e de Roma (1252–1258, a Roman text in a Tuscan copy), where the word means a female horse, ass, mule or other beast for riding or carrying.^[2] The form giomenta also appears in the 13th century in the Fiore and in Guittone.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named the female of any saddle or pack animal, and by extension a beast as opposed to a rational human being.^[2] It was also an insult for a woman of loose morals, and the Enciclopedia dantesca notes an equivocal use for a woman.^[2][4] Boccaccio's correr le giumente (Decameron IV, 2) meant the same as correre la cavallina, to sow one's wild oats.^[9][10]

D. Cavalca, before 1342, has a preacher riding una giumenta vilissima, the meanest mare he could find.^[4][11] In Ariosto the hippogriff is born of a mare and a griffin: Ch'una giumenta generò d'un grifo.^[12] Berni's legar la giumenta, literally “to tie up the mare”, meant to fall into a deep sleep, like legar l'asino.^[12]

The sense of a saddle mare is now dated, and the word mostly names the female of the donkey, mule or other pack animal.^[9][13]

Timeline

• 817 – Medieval Latin jumente is recorded in a document.^[4]
• 10th century – The Latin feminine is recorded in the Codex Cajetanus and the Codex Cavensis.^[3]
• 1252–1258 – Giumenta appears in the Storie de Troia e de Roma.^[2]
• 13th century – Giomenta is used in the Fiore and by Guittone.^[4][7][13]
• Before 1342 – D. Cavalca uses giumenta for a riding mare.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The female of a pack or draught animal, such as a donkey or mule.^[6][13][9]
2. (dated) A riding mare.^[6][10][9]

Related words

• giumento
• giogo
• Latin iumentum
• French jument

Usage notes

The archaic phrase correre le giumente meant correre la cavallina, to lead a dissolute life.^[7][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1820
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 883
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse