grano

Forms

grano m (plural grani)^[1] The old plurals are the feminine le grana and le granora.^[2][3][4] Old forms include Old Italian granu and Old Italian gran.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin grānum (“grain, seed”).^[6][7][8][1] The word is panromance: French grain, Catalan gra, Spanish grano, Portuguese grão, Sardinian ranu, Romanian grâu and Dalmatian grun.^[7][9] The Latin word belonged to the agricultural vocabulary of Western and Northern Indo-European, from Italic and Celtic to Baltic and Slavic, unknown to Greek, Armenian and Indo-Iranian.^[6][10][4]

The Latin word is from Proto-Italic *grānom, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm.^[1][11] Its cognates include Old Irish grán, Lithuanian žìrnis (“pea”) and, through Germanic, Old High German korn and the English word corn.^[11][7][12] De Vaan explains the form as “which has ripened, fruit”;^[11][7] Nocentini as the past participle of a root meaning “to grind”.^[11][7] Devoto saw in the root a contrast between the damp northwest, where drying meant ripening, and the southeast, where it meant ageing, as in Ancient Greek γέρων (gérōn, “old man”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Roman foundation document of the 12th century.^[5] DELI dates the grain of the plant, from which flour is milled, to the late 12th century, in the rent book of the abbey of Coltibuono in Tuscany;^[6][8] GRADIT gives the second half of the 12th century.^[6][8]

Semantic evolution

Before about 1000 grano was the only word for wheat throughout Italy; it then slowly lost ground, from the north, to two probable Gallicisms, biada and frumento.^[6] The step from the grain of wheat to other small round things had already been taken in Roman times.^[6] Old Italian used it for a single kernel (Dante, 1300–1313), for the least part of something (Guittone, before 1294), and for a small weight in pharmacy (Bencivenni, 14th century); in the 18th century it became a weight for gems.^[6] The plural grani for cereals in general was the usage of the Lombard and northern economists of the 18th century.^[6]

Grano saraceno, buckwheat (1550, Mattioli), probably meant “black grain” rather than grain brought by the Arabs, and the turco of granoturco, maize, may stand for “foreign”, though DELI calls the question unresolved.^[6] From the 15th to the 19th century grano was a copper coin of Naples and Sicily.^[6][14][8] English borrowed it in this sense as grano (1802), and German as Grano (1806).^[15] In colloquial Italian grano also means money.^[8][1]

Timeline

• 12th century – Grano appears in a Roman foundation document.^[5]
• Late 12th century – The rent book of the abbey of Coltibuono records the grain.^[6]
• 13th century – The Storie di Troia e di Roma use it for the plant.^[6]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for “the smallest part”.^[6]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for a single grain or kernel.^[6]
• 14th century – Z. Bencivenni uses it for a weight for medicines.^[6]
• Before 1475 – L. De Rosa names the Neapolitan copper coin.^[6]
• 1550 – P. Mattioli records grano saraceno, buckwheat.^[6]
• 1750 – F. Galiani uses it for a weight for precious stones.^[6]
• 1802 – English grano, the coin, is first recorded.^[15]
• 1956 – The sense “bead of a rosary or necklace” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. wheat, the cereal with an ear from which flour for bread and pasta is made: seminare il grano.^[8][16][1]
2. The seed of this plant, the grain; collectively, a quantity of it: un silo pieno di grano.^[8][17]
3. (in the plural) Cereals, grain crops in general.^[8][17]
4. A grain, granello: a seed of some fruits and pulses, a tiny particle: un grano di sale.^[8][1]
5. A bead of a rosary or necklace.^[8][1]
6. (figurative) The smallest amount: senza un grano di giudizio.^[8]
7. (colloquial) money.^[8][1]
8. A unit of weight, the grain, used for drugs, precious metals and gems.^[8][18]
9. (historical) A coin of Naples and Sicily; also a coin of the Order of Malta.^[8][6]

Word family

• granello
• granicoltura
• granire
• granivoro
• granoso
• granoturco
• ingranare
• sgranare
• granaio
• granario
• granturco

Related words

• grana
• graniglia
• granulo
• cereale
• granaglie
• frumento
• Latin grānum

Usage notes

Grano duro (durum wheat) is used for pasta and grano tenero (soft wheat) for bread.^[16][2][3] DEI splits the plant and the kernel into two headwords, but they are one word.^[10][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
4. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, 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 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
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1860
11. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1861
15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
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
18. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org