giumento

Forms

giumento m (plural giumenti)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian giomento and iumento.^[2][3] The old plural is often the feminine le giumenta, used with a collective sense.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin iūmentum (“draught animal, beast of burden”).^[3][7][8][1] The Latin word first meant a team or a horse under the yoke, then an animal for pulling, and later one for carrying loads.^[3][9][10]

The same word is French jument, which means “mare”, Occitan jumen “beast of burden” and Catalan jument “donkey”, from which Spanish jumento was borrowed.^[7][11] In the sense “mare” it is already found in the Lex Salica.^[9][11]

The Latin noun goes back to a form *youg-s-mentom and belongs with iungō (“to yoke, join”) and iugum (“yoke”).^[7][12][13] The OLD analyses it as the root of the verb with an ⟨-s-⟩ and the suffix -mentum, and refers to the archaic form iouxmenta.^[13] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *jouksməntom, a remodelling of Proto-Indo-European *yéwgmn̥ (“yoking”), from *yewg- (“to yoke”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is giomento in Bono Giamboni, who died before 1292; the form giumento follows in Giordano da Pisa (1306), in the sense of a pack animal.^[3][2] Giamboni's text gives the Sabbath rule that neither the servant nor the giomento should work.^[14]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word named any pack or draught animal, and above all the donkey or the mule, also in figurative contexts.^[2] Giordano da Pisa defined giumenti as the beasts made to help man, among them oxen, cows, sheep, horses, donkeys and camels.^[14] The feminine plural le giumenta served as a collective, as in the old Bible translations (alle pecore ed alle giumenta le stalle, “stalls for the sheep and the beasts”).^[15][4]

The feminine giumenta came to mean a mare: giomenta is found in the 13th century, in the Fiore and in Guittone, and Medieval Latin jumente in a document of 817.^[3] It was sometimes used with a double meaning for a woman.^[3] Today giumento means a pack animal, especially a donkey or mule, and the feminine is the commoner word.^[8][10]

Timeline

• 817 – Medieval Latin jumente is recorded in a document.^[3]
• Before 1292 – Giomento appears in Bono Giamboni.^[3]
• 1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses giumento.^[3][2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses giumenta for a mare.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pack animal or draught animal, especially a donkey or mule: Il giumento portava la legna giù dal monte.^[8][6][10]

Word family

• giumenta

Related words

• giogo
• giungere
• Latin iugum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
10. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET