gomitolo

Forms

gomitolo m (plural gomitoli)^[1] Old Italian forms include gumitol, ghomitolo and ghiomitulo.^[2] Sienese has gomicciolo.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Italian ghiomo (“ball of thread”), with a double diminutive suffix, ⟨-ito-⟩ and -olo.^[4][5][6] Prati thought that ⟨-itolo⟩ took the place of an earlier ⟨-itello⟩.^[4][7] Nocentini, GRADIT and Devoto see the influence of gomito (“elbow”) in the first syllable, which Zingarelli gives with a question mark.^[5][6][8][9] Devoto–Oli explain the loss of the ⟨l⟩ as a dissimilation, while Prati speaks of a reduction of ⟨ghio-⟩ to ⟨go-⟩.^[10][7]

The base word is from Vulgar Latin *glŏmus, from Latin glomus (“ball of thread”), a word that parallels globus (“ball”).^[5][4][11] The learned glomo is a later borrowing of the same Latin word.^[4][5] The Latin word survives in Romanian ghem and Old Occitan gloms.^[12][13]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *glemos and Proto-Indo-European *glem-o/es-: the ⟨e⟩ of the Romanian word and of Venetian gjemo would continue it, and ⟨o⟩ arose next to the ⟨l⟩.^[14] He compares Old Irish glomar (“gag, curb”), Old English clamm (“fetters”), Old High German klamma (“trap”) and perhaps Lithuanian glomóti (“to embrace”), and thinks the Latin word for “ball” and glēba (“clod”) may go back to the same, perhaps substrate, word.^[14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Florentine document of 1286–1290.^[2] About the same time the Fiore lists gumitol di fil, a ball of thread, among the small gifts a woman may give a lover.^[4][16] The sense is a ball of thread wound on itself.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In 1333 Simintendi writes of raw wool gathered ne’ primi gomitoli, and the Ottimo commentary on Dante tells how Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of pitch and uno gomitolo di filo for the labyrinth.^[16][3] The thread of Ariadne stayed a figure of speech: Bembo writes of passing through a labyrinth senza gomitolo.^[3] Old Italian also used the word for anything shaped like a ball of thread.^[2]

Writers used it for a close group of soldiers drawn up in a circle (Bembo, Botta) and for clustered bees.^[7][17] The figurative sense of a tangle, as in Ungaretti's un gomitolo di strade, and the phrase fare gomitolo, of a cat or dog curled up, are recorded by the modern dictionaries.^[6][17][10] The verbs raggomitolare and aggomitolare go back to the 14th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 1286–1290 – A Florentine document has the first record.^[2]
• Late 13th century – The Fiore has gumitol di fil.^[4]
• 1321 – Ghiomo is recorded in the statutes of Pisa.^[2]
• First half of the 14th century – Raggomitolare is first recorded.^[5]
• 1333 – Simintendi uses the plural gomitoli.^[4]
• Mid-14th century – Aggomitolare is first recorded.^[5]
• 1598 – Florio records the learned glomo in the sense “ball of thread”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ball of thread, yarn or string wound on itself so that it can be unwound as it is used: un gomitolo di lana rossa.^{[6][10][18][9][1]}
2. A roughly round bundle of anything: fare un gomitolo of a scarf;^[6][9][17] fare gomitolo, to curl up.^[6][9][17]
3. (figurative) A tangle or jumble: un gomitolo di vicoli.^[6][10][18]
4. A dense crowd of people, or a cluster of animals, especially bees.^[6][17]

Word family

• aggomitolare
• aggomitolatore
• sgomitolare
• raggomitolare
• gomitolatrice
• gomitolino

Related words

• ghiomo
• glomo
• globo
• Latin glomus

Usage notes

The capo del gomitolo is the free end of the thread.^[9][19] Essere or diventare un gomitolo is said of a person bent and huddled with age, illness or cold.^[10][17][19] The diminutives are gomitolino and gomitoletto, the augmentative gomitolone.^[9][20]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 516
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1800
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
14. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
19. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
20. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana