gondola

Forms

gondola f (plural gondole)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian gondolla, Old Italian gundula and Old Italian gunnula.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Venetian góndoła, and its further origin is much debated.^[3][1][4] The word appears first in the Medieval Latin of Venice, as Medieval Latin gondula in a document of 1094.^[4][5]

The explanation DELI still finds the most acceptable, put forward by the Kahanes, is from Byzantine Greek κοντοῦρα (kontoûra), the name of a boat recorded in the 10th century in Constantine Porphyrogenitus: the feminine of an adjective κόντουρος (kóntouros, “short-tailed”), from Ancient Greek κοντός (kontós, “short”) and οὐρά (ourá, “tail”).^[4][3][6][1] Nocentini objects that this boat name is recorded in the 13th century as ⟨condura⟩ and ⟨condurra⟩, and the second spelling shows stress on the middle syllable, which does not fit the stress on the first syllable of the Italian word.^[7]

Nocentini prefers Vulgar Latin *gondula, a diminutive of Ancient Greek κόνδυ (kóndu, “drinking cup”); this goes back to Diez and was taken up by Vidos and Castellani.^[7][4] It explains the stress, and the step from a drinking vessel to a slender boat has many parallels, such as gozzo.^[7][4] DEI also starts from the cup word, through a regional form *condua.^[8] DELI rejects a sound-imitating origin from Venetian gondolar (“to rock”) or from Latin cunula (“little cradle”): that could suit the Venetian boat, but not the larger and faster boats that served great ships in the oldest records.^[4] Devoto–Oli and Zingarelli see the influence of dondolare “to rock” on the Greek word.^[9][6]

French gondole and Spanish góndola are borrowed from Italian.^[7] The French word is recorded earlier as Old French gondele (1246), but the form of 1549 comes from Italian.^[10][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is in Francesco da Barberino's Documenti d'Amore (1314, Tuscan), where a gondola is a slender boat, named beside the battello and the barca.^[4][2][10] In the Old Italian texts the word means any light boat that carries people or goods.^[2]

Semantic evolution

DELI separates the general sense “boat”, current from 1314, from the narrow, flat Venetian boat with its toothed prow ornament, first described by Bandello in 1554.^[4] Nocentini also dates the specific link with Venice only to the 16th century.^[7] In Venice the name was once also given to larger boats, among them the doge's boat with twelve oars.^[8][11] A Tuscan proverb says that there are not as many little fish in the Arno as there are gondolas and chimneys in Venice (Non sono in Arno tanti pesciolini, quanti in Venezia gondole e camini).^[12]

From 1956 a gondola is also a streamlined housing for an aircraft engine.^[4][5] Supermarkets call a long, low display shelf a gondola.^[9][6]

The word spread to the other European languages: German Gondel (as gundelin in 1521, first for a ship's boat), and English gondola (gondalo in 1548).^[5] English uses it for open railway wagons from 1871 and for the cabin of an airship from 1896.^[13][5]

Timeline

• 1094 – Medieval Latin gondula is recorded in a Venetian document.^[4]
• 1246 – Old French gondele is recorded.^[5]
• 1314 – Francesco da Barberino uses gondola for a light boat.^[4][2]
• 1521 – German gundelin is recorded.^[5]
• 1548 – English gondalo is recorded.^[5]
• 1549 – French gondole, from Italian, appears in Rabelais.^[8]
• 1553 – Gondoliere, the rower of a gondola, is first recorded.^[4]
• 1554 – Bandello describes the Venetian gondola.^[4]
• 1956 – The aircraft sense is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gondola: the long, flat-bottomed and asymmetrical boat of the lagoon of Venice, traditionally black, with a toothed iron ornament on the prow, rowed with a single oar by a standing gondoliere.^{[3][9][6][14]}
2. (aeronautics) The streamlined housing of an aircraft engine; a nacelle.^[3][9][6][1]
3. In supermarkets, a long, low shelf unit on which goods are displayed.^[9][6]

Word family

• gondoliere
• gondolino
• gondolone

Related words

• French gondole
• English gondola

Usage notes

A gondola describes objects curved upwards at the ends like the hull of a gondola, such as shoes and slippers.^[15][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 h Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
6. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1843
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana