granaio

Forms

granaio m (plural granai)^[1] Old and dialect forms in the TLIO include Old Italian granaro, granajo, granar, graner and granagio.^[2] GDLI also records the old forms granaro and granario.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin grānārium (“granary”), formed from grānum (“grain”) with the suffix -ārium.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} The ending -aio is the regular Tuscan outcome of the Latin suffix.^[10] Wiktionary also allows a formation in Italian, from Italian grano + -aio.^[1]

The same word is Friulian graner, Romansh graner, French grenier, Old Occitan granier, Catalan graner and Spanish granero;^[11][9] Portuguese took it from Spanish.^[11][9] The Latin noun is from Proto-Italic *grāno-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵrh₂-no-, probably “that which has ripened”; de Vaan prefers this to a root meaning “to grind”.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Miracole de Roma, a text in the dialect of Rome from the middle of the 13th century, with the sense “building or part of a building for storing grain and other cereals”.^[2] DEI also dates the word to the 13th century, while DELI and Nocentini begin with the plural granari in a 14th-century translation of the Bible.^[9][13][4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word could also mean a store for other food.^[2] The figurative sense “region that grows much grain” appears in the 14th century with the form granaro in a translation of Livy, and granaio in this sense is cited from an old commentary on Dante.^[13] The modern dictionaries illustrate it with Sicily or Egypt as the granary of Rome.^[14][15][16]

In farmhouses the granaio is also the attic or loft where grain, provisions and tools are kept.^[5][6][15] Engineering and agriculture distinguish several types, such as the granaio a silo, a fossa, a torri and a cateratte.^[5][15]

DEI says that the word passed into English as granary;^[9][17] Etymonline derives the English word, recorded from the 1560s, from Latin grānāria.^[9][17]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – Miracole de Roma has the first record.^[2]
• 14th century – The plural granari appears in a translation of the Bible, and granaro “grain-growing region” in a translation of Livy.^[13]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses the plural granai.^[13]
• 1560s – English granary is recorded.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A granary: a room or building for storing grain.^[5][6][7]
2. In a farmhouse, the attic or loft where grain, provisions and tools are kept.^[5][6][15]
3. (figurative) A region or country that produces grain in abundance; a breadbasket: la pianura padana è il granaio del paese.^[5][6][1]

Word family

• granaiolo

Related words

• grano
• granaglia
• Latin granarium
• French grenier
• English granary

Usage notes

GDLI records a separate old adjective granaio or granaro “fertile, rich in grain”, also formed from grano.^[3]

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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1857
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 208
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com