gru

Forms

gru f (invariable)^[1] Old Italian forms include grue, grua and gruga.^[2][3] The word was also masculine in older Italian.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin grūs (“crane”), from the accusative.^[6][7][8][1] DEI holds that the Romance forms also point to a Vulgar Latin *grua.^[9] The same word is French grue, Occitan grua, Catalan grua, Portuguese grou, Romanian gruie and Sardinian rua.^[7][1][10]

DELI and Nocentini call the Latin word imitative, from a sound-symbolic name already found across Indo-European.^[6][7][11] Isidore wrote that cranes took their name from their own cry.^[6][7][11] Its cognates include Ancient Greek γέρανος (géranos), Old High German chranih, German Kranich, the English word crane, Lithuanian gervė and Welsh garan.^[7][12] De Vaan reconstructs a u-stem Proto-Indo-European *ǵrh₂-u- (“crane”), and Wiktionary derives it from *gerh₂- (“to cry hoarsely”).^[12][1]

The sense “machine for lifting loads” was already found in γέρανος (géranos) and in Latin, where Vitruvius used it for a siege engine.^[6][7] DELI, after Folena, does not rule out a calque of the Greek made in the ports of southern France and Catalonia.^[6] DEI thinks it probably came with the machine from the French grue (1615), itself modelled on Middle Dutch crane, though it allows an independent development.^[9] Devoto–Oli and Treccani see a likeness between the arm of the machine and the bird's neck.^[4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the form grue in B. Giamboni, before 1292, and the TLIO's in the Florentine translation of the Tesoro, late 13th century, for the long-legged wading bird.^[6][2] Dante writes of cranes in the masculine: i gru van cantando lor lai, “the cranes go singing their lays”.^[6][14]

Semantic evolution

The feminine la gru is recorded before 1400 in Sacchetti.^[6] In a tale of Boccaccio's a servant claims that le gru non hanno se non una coscia e una gamba, “cranes have only one thigh and one leg”.^[15] In 1525 Bembo remarked that no Tuscan noun ended in ⟨u⟩ except tu and gru, the same in singular and plural.^[6]

The machine is il grue in Florio (1563), and Garzoni (1585) speaks of drawing water from wells con le gru overo cicogne, “with cranes or storks”.^[6] D'Alberti recorded grue as a naval term in 1798, and in 1840 the Milanese of Cherubini told the bird, gru, from the machine, grua.^[6] The crane operator, gruista, is recorded in 1950 and the film crane in 1958.^[6] The constellation Grus was named after the bird in the 19th century.^[9]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – B. Giamboni uses grue for the bird.^[6]
• 1300–13 – Dante writes i gru in the masculine.^[6]
• Before 1400 – Sacchetti has the feminine la gru.^[6]
• 1525 – Bembo comments on the rare final ⟨u⟩ of gru.^[6]
• 1563 – Florio records grue for the lifting machine.^[6]
• 1798 – D'Alberti lists grue as a naval term.^[6]
• 1950 – Gruista, crane operator, is recorded.^[6]
• 1958 – Gru is used for the film crane.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) A crane: a large grey migratory bird with long thin legs, a long neck and a pointed bill, living in marshy places; especially the common crane (Grus grus).^{[8][4][14][5]}
2. (zoology, capitalized) The genus Grus.^[8][14]
3. A crane for lifting and moving loads, with a fixed or turning arm that carries a pulley, used especially on building sites: La gru sollevava le travi fino al quinto piano.^[8][4][5]
4. (cinema) A camera crane: a mobile dolly with a long arm carrying the camera.^[8][4][5]
5. (history, military) A medieval war machine: a movable beam with a hook, used from the walls to seize and wreck the besiegers' engines.^[8][4][14]

Word family

• gruista
• gruiforme
• gruetta

Related words

• Latin grus
• French grue

Usage notes

The word is invariable: la gru, le gru.^[1][4] Gru cenerina is the common crane and gru coronata the crowned crane.^[8][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 533
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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 f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1877
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET