greve

Forms

greve m or f by sense (plural grevi)^[1] Old forms are grieve, with the Tuscan diphthong, and grevo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *grĕvis, a form of Latin gravis (“heavy”) reshaped after its opposite lĕvis (“light”).^[4][5][6][7] The Latin form is recorded as Medieval Latin grevis in an 8th-century glossary.^[1] It is the popular doublet of grave.^[1] The word is pan-Romance: Old French grief, from which English grief comes, Occitan greu, Catalan greu, Spanish Old Spanish grieve and Romanian greu.^[5][7][8]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *gʷraus and Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”), an u-stem adjective remade as an i-stem; it is related to Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús) and Sanskrit गुरु (gurú).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the poems of Rustico di Filippo, before 1300, with the sense “heavy, grave”;^[4][10] Zingarelli dates the word before 1257.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

Pietro Bembo noted in 1525 that the first vowel of grave is sometimes changed to make greve in verse, and D'Alberti in 1798 still called it a word of poetry more than of prose.^[4] Dante has it in Inferno 3, maestro, che è tanto greve / a lor, “master, what is so heavy upon them”, and for the eternal, cursed, cold and heavy rain of the third circle in Inferno 6.^[11][12] The Venetian area kept it in daily use: Vicentine grevezza meant a tax in 1376.^[3]

The word is literary in some regions and popular in others, in senses where grave would not be used: heavy clothes, an oppressive air, a person slow and tedious.^[12] In Rome it took the sense “coarse, vulgar”, now general.^[12][6]

Timeline

• Before 1300 – Rustico di Filippo uses greve.^[4]
• Early 1300s – Dante uses greve in Inferno 3 and 6.^[11]
• 1376 – Vicentine grevezza “tax” is recorded.^[3]
• 1525 – Bembo calls greve a poetic variant of grave.^[4]
• 1798 – D'Alberti calls it a word of verse more than of prose.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. heavy, weighty.^[6][10][1]
2. Giving a feeling of heaviness, oppressive: aria greve, close, sultry air.^[6][13][10]
3. Of food, hard to digest.^[6][2]
4. (figurative, literary) Painful, hard to bear.^[6][13][2]
5. coarse, vulgar, crude: uno scherzo greve.^[6][13][14]

Word family

• grevemente
• grevità
• aggrevare

Related words

• grave
• lieve
• Latin gravis
• English grief

Usage notes

The coarse, vulgar sense began in Roman usage.^[14][12] Greve is also the name of a town near Florence.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 529
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana