grumo

Forms

grumo m (plural grumi)^[1] A rare variant is grummo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin grūmus (“heap of earth, mound”), from the accusative.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} Zingarelli calls it a learned word,^[8] but DEI shows that the Latin word lived on in the dialects, as Old Trevisan grun and Friulian grum with the old sense “heap”, and with the Italian sense in Piedmontese, Genoese and Alpine Venetian.^[9] The same word is Catalan grum, Spanish grumo and Portuguese grumo.^[4][10] The popular gromma goes back to the same Latin word.^[4][11]

DELI calls the Latin word a rare technical word of unknown origin.^[3] DEI took it as a probable Mediterranean relic.^[9] De Vaan instead reconstructs Proto-Italic *grōmo-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵr-ōm-o-.^[12] He connects it with gremium (“lap”) and with Proto-Slavic *gromada (“heap”), with a change of /ō/ to /ū/ before /m/ that he also sees in hūmānus.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the poems of Francesco di Vannozzo, 1374, in a figurative heap or mass.^[7] DELI dates the sense “a small quantity of curdled liquid, especially blood” to Pietro Andrea Mattioli in 1563, whose grumi di sangue describe the resin called dragon's blood.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Francesco Redi put grumo and grumoso into the Crusca dictionary with quotations he falsely attributed to the 14th century.^[3] The blood clot remains the main sense: Berchet writes of i grumi del sangue on old halberds and Pascoli of blood left only arso, in grumi, dried into clots.^[2]

The extended sense of a lump in a badly mixed paste is dated from 1884, with Giovanni Faldella's grummi of boot polish and D'Annunzio's grumi.^[3][2] An old sense, the bud of a flower, is now obsolete,^[8][13] and geology uses the word for small rounded grains in some sedimentary rocks.^[5][14] Place names called Grumo come from the sense “hill”.^[15]

Timeline

• 1374 – Francesco di Vannozzo uses grumi in a figurative sense.^[7]
• 1563 – Pietro Andrea Mattioli writes of grumi di sangue.^[3][5]
• Before 1698 – Francesco Redi brings grumoso into the Crusca dictionary.^[3]
• 1884 – Giovanni Faldella uses grummi for lumps in a paste.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A clot of blood or of another body fluid, such as milk: un grumo di sangue sulla benda.^{[5][6][14][1]}
2. A lump in a badly mixed or undissolved substance: una crema piena di grumi.^[5][6][8][1]
3. (geology) A small rounded granule of calcareous, phosphatic or siliceous matter that gives some sedimentary rocks a lumpy texture.^[5][14]
4. (obsolete) The bud of a flower.^[5][8][16]

Word family

• grumoso
• grumolo
• grumetto
• aggrumare
• raggrumare
• raggrumolare

Related words

• gruma
• gromma
• Latin grumus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1878
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
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. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 535
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli