gobbio

Forms

gobbio m (plural gobbi)^[1] The variant gubbio is Lucchese, while gobbio is the Pisan form.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ingluviēs (“crop of birds; gluttony”), with the loss of the first syllable and a dissimilation of the consonants.^[3][2][1][4] DEI explains the shape through the Tuscan verb ingubbiare, with its variant inghebbiare.^[4] Meyer-Lübke lists both verbs, meaning “to overeat”, as derivatives of the Latin noun.^[5] Rohlfs, cited by Cortelazzo and Marcato, assumes an unattested intermediate form beginning in /ɡj/.^[6]

Meyer-Lübke takes Corsican gobiu from the Tuscan word and records lobbiu beside it.^[5][4]

The Latin noun is probably formed from in- and a verb *gluō related to gluttiō (“to gulp down”), on the model of illuviēs beside illuō.^[7] Wiktionary connects it with gula (“throat”) and a root Proto-Indo-European *gʷel- (“throat”), but notes that de Vaan doubts this root and treats such words as imitative formations that may have arisen more than once.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the writings of Michele Guinigi, a Tuscan text of 1388 in a manuscript from before 1397, where the word names the crop of a bird.^[8] By extension Old Italian also used it for a person's throat.^[8]

Semantic evolution

A treatise on falconry quoted by Tommaseo uses the word for a hawk's crop: if after feeding the bird vedrai nel gobbio la carne costretta e aggomitolata (“you see the meat in its crop pressed into a ball”) and not slowly passing into the stomach, it has indigestion.^[9] Tommaseo noted in 1861 that the word was still alive in Lucca.^[9]

DEI likewise calls it old and still current in Lucchese, and Treccani labels it old and dialectal.^[4][2] In the Tuscan dialects it is the crop or gizzard of poultry, and the word is also known in Corsica and in Gallura in Sardinia.^[6] GRADIT marks it as obsolete.^[3]

Timeline

• 1388 – Michele Guinigi uses gobbio for the crop of a bird.^[8]
• Before 1406 – GRADIT's date of first record.^[3]
• 1861 – Tommaseo records the word as still alive in Lucca.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete, dialectal) The crop of a bird.^[3][2][1]
2. (Old Italian, by extension) A person's throat.^[8]

Related words

• ingubbiare
• ghebbio
• Latin ingluvies

Usage notes

A different gobbio, the goby (a fish of the family Gobiidae), comes from Latin gobius, itself from Ancient Greek κωβιός (kōbiós); it is recorded in the dictionaries from Florio (1598) to Veneroni (1681), and again in 1920.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1837
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET, p. 275
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 218