grana

Forms

grana f (plural grane)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin grāna (“grains”), the Latin neuter plural with collective sense, taken as a feminine singular.^[2][3][4][1] Its singular continues as grano.^[3][1] The same plural gave French graine, Occitan grana, Catalan grana “seed”, Spanish grana and Portuguese grã “cochineal”;^[3][5] DEI calls the type pan-Romance except for Romanian.^[3][5]

The sense “cochineal, crimson dye” is, for DEI, a calque of Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos, “grain, berry; kermes”).^[5] Devoto–Oli explains it by the dried insects, small as grains of corn.^[6]

DELI and GRADIT give the cheese and the money headwords of their own.^[2][4] The cheese is named by ellipsis from ⟨formaggio di grana⟩, Lombard ⟨formaj de granna⟩, the “grainy cheese”, for its fine granular curd.^[2][3][4][7] For “money” DELI and Nocentini point to the ⟨grana⟩ or ⟨grano⟩, a coin of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, generalised like other coin names (⟨baiocchi⟩, ⟨svanziche⟩); Treccani and Battaglia agree, while Zingarelli calls the origin uncertain and Wiktionary suggests the singular.^{[2][3][8][9][10][1]} DELI notes the slang French grain for money but keeps the Italian word native unless the French phrase is the older.^[2]

The sense “trouble” comes from Piedmontese ⟨pianté la grana⟩ (1886), “to plant a seed”, i.e. to raise a quibble, spread through the barracks of the Piedmontese army, as Renzi showed;^[2][3][5] DEI instead thought of a grain that jams a mechanism.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century; the oldest sense is the bright red dye made from the dried bodies of scale insects, and cloth dyed with it.^[11][7] Guinizzelli has a viso di neve colorato in grana, a snow-white face coloured crimson.^[10][6]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian grana also meant a seed or kernel, a small quantity, a weight of a quarter of a carat, and a coin worth one six-hundredth of the gold ounce.^[11] Villani writes of panni scarlatti di grana.^[12] The sense “grain, texture” of a material broken or cut dates from about 1465 (Filarete), and “granule” from Biringuccio (before 1537); later come the grain of leather in tanning and of a photographic emulsion, and the figurative di grana grossa “coarse, boorish”.^[2][4][10]

In the 19th century formaggio di grana became simply il grana (1850–51, Rajberti), a masculine noun.^[2][4] The coin, the grano of the Two Sicilies with its old plural le grana, gave the slang “money”: a Neapolitan senza manco un grano means “without a penny”, and Prati recorded grana as popular Roman in 1952.^[2][9] The barracks phrase piantare una grana, noted in 1926, made grana a “rebuke” (1931) and then a “nuisance, trouble” (Gadda, 1944).^[2][9]

German Grana for the colour is recorded, with a query, in 1508;^[13] French has grana for the cheese from the 20th century, and German also has Granakäse.^[13] The Portuguese word grana “money” is a loan from Italian.^[1]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur have the first record.^[11]
• Before 1257 – Zingarelli's first date for the crimson colour.^[10]
• c. 1465 – Filarete uses grana for the internal grain of a material.^[2]
• Before 1537 – Biringuccio uses it for a granule.^[2]
• 1508 – German Grana “crimson” is recorded, with a query.^[13]
• 1840 – Cherubini's Milanese dictionary has formaj de granna.^[2]
• 1850–1851 – Grana alone names the cheese, in Rajberti.^[2][4]
• 1886 – Piedmontese pianté la grana is recorded.^[2]
• 1931 – Panzini records grana “rebuke”.^[2]
• 1944 – Gadda writes grane e gatte da pelare “troubles”.^[2]
• 1952 – Prati records grana “money” as popular Roman.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The grain of a material, the size of the grains or particles that make it up, and its texture: legno a grana fine, sabbia a grana grossa; figuratively di grana grossa, coarse, crude.^[4][6][10]
2. A particle or granello of a granular substance.^[4][14][10]
3. (photography) The grain of a photographic emulsion, which limits the rendering of detail.^[4][6][14]
4. (textiles, tanning) The texture of a fabric; the grain side of a tanned skin.^[4][6][10]
5. (literary) Carmine, the crimson dye from dried cocciniglia (kermes); cloth of that colour.^[4][6][8]
6. (colloquial) A nuisance, a trouble, a tiresome problem: piantare una grana, to make trouble.^[4][6][8]
7. (colloquial, singular only) money, cash.^[8][10][9]
8. (masculine, invariable) Grana, a hard, semi-skimmed cheese of cow's milk from Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy, often grated: grana padano.^[4][6][14]

Word family

• sgranare
• sgranocchiare
• granista

Related words

• grano
• granello
• Latin grānum
• French graine

Usage notes

In the senses “grain”, “trouble” and “money” the word is feminine (plural grane); as the cheese it is masculine and invariable (il grana, i grana).^[4][1] Le grana was also an old plural of grano, used of the Neapolitan coin.^[9][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1856
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 522
8. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
9. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)