gramigna

Forms

gramigna f (plural gramigne)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian gramegna and Old Italian grimigna; the variant with gri- is Old Lucchese and Pisan.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin graminea (“grassy”), the feminine of this adjective used as a noun, from grāmen (“grass”).^[4][5][6][7] Devoto gives the spoken form as Vulgar Latin *graminja.^[8] The Latin adjective did not refer to these particular plants; the Italian word names several weedy grasses.^[3][5] The word belongs to central and southern Italy, Liguria and Piedmont, and the Sardinian form is raminzu.^[3][9]

The Latin noun first meant fodder for animals;^[5] Nocentini compares Ancient Greek γράστις (grástis, “fodder”), from Ancient Greek γράω (gráō, “to gnaw, eat”).^[5] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰr̥h₁-mn̥- or Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰr̥h₁-s-mn̥- and compares Old High German gras and Old Norse gras with the verb Old High German gruoen (“to grow”); the link with Germanic “grass” is difficult, and a substrate origin is conceivable.^[10][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Milanese poems of Bonvesin de la Riva, of the 13th century.^[2] DELI's first date is Dante (1313–1319), for the perennial grass that does serious harm to crops.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian gramigna was already used in medicine and figuratively, for a party or doctrine that spreads fast, and as an image of humble origins.^[2] Botanists apply the name chiefly to two weeds with creeping rhizomes, Cynodon dactylon and Agropyron repens (gramigna dei medici), whose roots were used for cooling and diuretic teas.^[11][7][12] The idioms crescere come la gramigna and attaccarsi come la gramigna describe something that spreads everywhere or a person one cannot shake off.^[6][13][7] In 1970 Zingarelli records gramigna as a short, curled pasta for soup, traditional in Emilia-Romagna.^[4][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – Bonvesin de la Riva uses gramigna in Milanese.^[2]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses the word for the weed.^[4]
• 14th century – Gramignoso appears in the Italian Palladius.^[14][3]
• 1970 – The sense “kind of soup pasta” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A weedy grass that grows wild in meadows and untilled ground and is hard to root out; couch grass.^[6][15][1]
2. (botany) Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), a perennial with creeping stems and fine spikes.^[6][16][17]
3. (botany) Couch grass (Agropyron repens), a fodder grass whose rhizome is used for herbal teas; also gramigna dei medici.^[6][16][13]
4. (figurative) A harmful thing that spreads very fast: La corruzione cresceva come la gramigna.^[6][16]
5. (cooking) A short, thin, curled pasta for soup.^[6][16][13]

Word family

• gramignolo
• gramignone

Related words

• graminacee
• Latin gramen

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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1855
4. ^ a b c d e 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 521
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana