grembo

Forms

grembo m (plural grembi)^[1] The Tuscan form is grembio.^[2][3][4] Old variants include Old Italian griembo and Old Italian grimbo.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gremium (“lap, bosom”), crossed with lembo (“hem, edge”).^{[2][3][6][7][4]} The regular outcome is the Tuscan grembio, through an intermediate *gremmio.^[3] GRADIT derives the standard form from it under the influence of the word for “hem”.^[3][6] DELI notes that the word and its derivatives grembiale and grembiule are Tuscan, and that Italy has so many other words for the lap that they form an early example of geosynonymy.^[2]

Outside Tuscany the Latin word survives in Friulian grim.^[4] Wiktionary gives gremio (“guild”) as a doublet, and Devoto explains the word for “guild” as a loan from Spanish.^[1][8]

The Latin word meant first an armful: what can be held between the arms and the chest, as in a bundle of firewood.^[2][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *grem-o- and, with a question mark, Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵr-em- (“to gather”), comparing Sanskrit ग्राम (grā́ma, “troop, village”) and Ancient Greek ἀγείρω (ageírō, “to gather”).^[10][1] Nocentini traces it to the root of gregge.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Tuscan form grembio is recorded in the 13th century, in the legend of the Blessed Umiliana;^[2][3][7] grembo follows in the early 14th century.^[2][3][7] Dante writes that Cupid sedette in grembo a Dido (“sat in Dido's lap”, Paradiso 8).^[5][11] The sense is the hollow between the knees and the chest of a seated person.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The womb, the mother's body, is a 14th-century sense, recorded in a translation of Cicero.^[2] Figuratively the word names the innermost, hidden part of anything, first in Petrarch (1374), and a community seen as a refuge, as in morire in grembo alla Chiesa.^[2][12] Petrarch's line Una pioggia di fior sovra 'l suo grembo (“a rain of flowers upon her lap”) is the dictionaries' classic example.^[12][11]

Literary Italian also uses it for a hollow or inlet, as in Dante's dove la costa face di sé grembo (“where the slope makes a hollow of itself”).^[13][9] A sailing sense, the fullest part of the sail, rests on a single source of 1889 that DELI regards as doubtful.^[2] The apron, grembiule, is recorded from Boccaccio (1348–1353).^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – Grembio appears in the legend of the Blessed Umiliana.^[2]
• Early 14th century – Grembo is recorded.^[7]
• 14th century – The sense “womb” appears in a translation of Cicero.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses grembo and grembiule.^[2][3]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses the word for the innermost part of something.^[2]
• 1889 – Guglielmotti records a sailing sense.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lap: the hollow between the knees and the chest of a seated person: La nonna teneva il gatto in grembo.^{[6][12][13][1]}
2. The womb, the mother's body during pregnancy: portare in grembo.^[6][13][14]
3. (figurative) The innermost or hidden part of something; a community seen as a refuge: in grembo a, within.^[6][12][13]
4. (literary) A hollow, an inlet; the bed of a lake or river.^[13][9][12]
5. (nautical, dated) The fullest part of a sail swelled by the wind.^[6][15]
6. (heraldry) A gyron, a triangle with its base on the edge of the shield and its point at the centre.^[6][16]

Word family

• grembiule
• grembiale
• sparagrembo

Related words

• grembio
• gremio
• lembo
• Latin gremium

Usage notes

Common phrases are grembo materno and portare in grembo; figuratively, gettarsi in grembo a qualcuno is to entrust oneself wholly to someone.^[6][12][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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 Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 7, 32
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1869
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
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. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org