giunto

Forms

giunto m (plural giunti)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian giungere (“to join; to arrive”): its past participle, used as a noun in the sense “that which joins”.^[2][3][4][5] The participle itself goes back to Latin iūnctus, the perfect passive participle of iungō (“to join”).^[1][6] The technical noun is a learned use that spread as a term of mechanics in the 20th century.^[7] Devoto points out that the Latin participle took its nasal from the present stem by analogy, where the regular form would have been *iūctus, as relictus stands beside relinquō.^[8]

Latin iungō meant first “to yoke”, from the same root as iugum (“yoke”) with a nasal infix.^[3] De Vaan traces it to a Proto-Indo-European nasal present *(H)iunégti (“to yoke”), and the same root gives Ancient Greek ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi).^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a participle and adjective giunto is recorded from the first half of the 13th century, in Giacomo da Lentini, with the sense “joined, set side by side”.^[10][2] The noun first appears in 1902, in the title of a Turin treatise on the packing of the joints used in mechanics, for a part that couples two elements of a structure or two shafts.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the participle for things joined into a pair or a whole, for kin and allies, for a territory bordering another, and for a line of verse linked to another by rhyme; in mathematics it could even mean the sum of an addition.^[10] In the sense “arrived” it is recorded in Petrarch in 1374.^[2] Of these adjectival uses only a few set phrases are still current, such as a mani giunte (with hands joined) and a piedi giunti (with feet together).^[5][11]

The modern noun belongs to engineering: a coupling between two rotating shafts, a link between rails, pipes or electric cables, and in building a gap left in a structure so that it can expand with heat.^[5][4] Writers of the 20th century also used it for any seam or line where two parts meet, as Tomasi di Lampedusa's dawn light slipping through the joints of the shutters.^[12]

A separate noun giunto “trick, swindle”, from giuntare “to cheat”, was current in the 16th century, in Machiavelli and Ariosto, and is now obsolete.^[12][13][7]

Timeline

• c. 1230–1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses giunto as a participle meaning “joined”.^[10][2]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses it in the sense “arrived”.^[2]
• 16th century – Giunto “swindle” appears in Machiavelli and Ariosto.^[12]
• 1902 – The noun is first recorded, in a Turin treatise on the joints used in mechanics.^[2][14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mechanics) A coupling or joint: a part that connects two elements of a machine or structure so that they work as one, or that links two shafts and passes the rotation from one to the other: il giunto cardanico (the universal joint), un giunto elastico.^{[14][4][15][1]}
2. (engineering) A connection between the ends of pipes, rails or electric cables: un giunto a manicotto (a sleeve joint).^[4][5]
3. (building) A gap left between two parts of a structure to allow for expansion and settling: giunto di dilatazione (expansion joint).^[15][4][16]
4. (geology) The surface between two layers of rock, in giunto di stratificazione (bedding plane).^[15][16]

Word family

• giuntura
• giunzione
• giuntista
• giuntatrice

Related words

• giungere
• congiunto
• giogo
• Latin iungō

Usage notes

Giunto is also the past participle of giungere (siamo giunti tardi, we arrived late), which some dictionaries treat as a separate headword.^[14][5] The railway term sistema del giunto names a way of running traffic in which each station reports that a train has arrived before the previous one may send another.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1822
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 204
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ 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, 892
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli