grandine

Forms

grandine f (plural grandini)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian granden, Old Italian grandena, Old Italian grandene and Old Italian grandina.^[2] In old texts the word could also be masculine, with a plural in -e.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin grando (“hail”), through the accusative grandinem.^[4][5][6][1] Dante also used Old Italian grando, a Latinism, the form of the Latin nominative, perhaps for the metre.^[4][7]

The Latin word survives only in Italy, Sardinia and Romania: Sardinian ràndine, Romanian grindină, with masculine Neapolitan grannene in Naples.^[5][8][9] In the dialects of northern Italy continuers of Latin tempestas are used for hail instead, and French uses grêle.^[9]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[10] Nocentini compares the Old Church Slavonic and Russian word for hail.^[5] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *gréh₃d-ōn “hail”, with a genitive whose metathesis gave the Latin stem ⟨grand-⟩, and compares the Balto-Slavic and Armenian words for hail.^[11] Wiktionary gives the root as *ǵʰreh₃d-.^[1] Devoto calls the Slavic and Armenian links fragile.^[12] The ancients took the Latin word for a word for “grain-like”, as Isidore of Seville explains.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma (1252–1258), for the violent fall of ice pellets from the sky.^[2] DELI dates grandine to 1282, in Restoro d'Arezzo, and the form granden to Iacopone da Todi.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Dante wrote in the third circle of Hell: Grandine grossa, acqua tinta e neve / per l'aere tenebroso si riversa (“Heavy hail, dirty water and snow pour down through the dark air”).^[3][13][14] The verb grandinare “to hail” appears in Boccaccio (1348–1353).^[4][5] In Old Italian medicine grandine was also a small swelling on the eyelid, a learned use of Late Latin “grando” for a small tumour in a horse's eye, itself a calque of Greek “chalaza”.^[2][9]

The figurative sense, a mass of things falling hard and thick, is recorded before 1555 in Giambullari.^[4] Grandinare took the figurative sense in 1659, grandinata “hailstorm” is from the 18th century, and grandinio, a long pelting of hail, from 1934.^[4][5] Tuscan has the saying c'è passata la grandine for a place left devastated, or jokingly for food eaten up at once.^[14][15] Economists call a tax that brings no productive use an imposta grandine.^[16][14]

Timeline

• 1252–1258 – Grandine appears in the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma.^[2]
• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses grandine.^[4][5]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi writes granden.^[4]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses the Latinism grando.^[4]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses the verb grandinare.^[4][5]
• Before 1555 – Giambullari uses grandine figuratively.^[4]
• 1934 – Grandinio is recorded in Civinini.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (meteorology) hail: precipitation of frozen water in small, roughly round pellets of ice: Ieri sera la grandine ha distrutto le vigne.^[6][16][10]
2. (by extension) The pellets of ice that fell in such a storm.^[10][15]
3. (figurative) A heavy, thick shower of something: : Dalla curva piovve una grandine di bottiglie.^[6][17][14]
4. A soup pasta shaped like small hailstones.^[10][15]

Word family

• grandinare
• grandinata
• grandinio
• antigrandine
• grandinina
• grandinoso

Related words

• gragnola
• Latin grando

Usage notes

Grandine secca is hail that falls without rain.^[10][15] The everyday collective noun is used mostly in the singular, and chicco di grandine is a single hailstone.^[17][6]

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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 524
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1859
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse