guado

guado¹ ford

Etymology tree of guado¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vadum

Italian guado

From the same root · guado¹

Latin vadōsus ← vadum

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡwa.do/^[1]

Forms

guado m (plural guadi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the ford is inherited from Latin vadum (“shallow water, ford”), a relative of vādō (“to go”).^[2][3][4][5] Its initial ⟨gu-⟩, where Latin /w/ would normally give Italian /v/, is put down to the influence of Frankish *wad, a word of the same remote origin, which merged with the Latin word.^[2][3][6][1] The same Germanic treatment is seen in French gué, Occitan gua and Catalan gual, while Spanish vado, Portuguese vau, Romanian vad and Sardinian badu keep the Latin consonant.^[3][7][1] The DÉRom accordingly reconstructs a Proto-Romance type with a consonantal initial for most of the Romance area and a type with a vocalic initial for a continuous area that includes Gallo-Romance.^[8]

Old Italian also had the unaffected form vado, used by Jacopone and Petrarch, and Tuscan place names are mostly ⟨Vado⟩ (from 1028), with ⟨Guado⟩ from 1222.^[9] The southern dialects kept /v/ as well, with shifted senses: Sicilian vadu means a crack in a wall.^[7][1]

The Latin word goes back through Proto-Italic *waðom to Proto-Indo-European *uh₂dʰóm, from the root Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ- of the verb; Proto-Germanic *wadą (“ford”) has the same source, and the Germanic cognates include Old High German wat and German Watt (“mudflats”).^[1][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni, who died before 1292, with the sense of a shallow stretch of a river that can be crossed on foot, on horseback or in a vehicle.^[2][4] The verb guadare “to ford” appears in the same author.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used guado for a passage in general (Jacopone) and for the bottom of the sea or a shoal.^[9][10][11] Dante gives it an abstract sense in colui che sì nasconde / lo suo primo perché, che non li è guado (“him who so hides his first reason that there is no ford to it”).^[4][12]

The phrase essere in mezzo al guado, to be halfway through a difficult transition, has had some success in contemporary Italian.^[2][4][11] In motoring, altezza di guado is the greatest depth of water a vehicle can drive through.^[12] The word is common in place names.^[2]

Timeline

• 1028 – The Tuscan place name Vado is recorded.^[9]
• 1222 – The place name Guado is recorded.^[9]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses guado and guadare.^[2][4]
• 1582 – Guadabile “fordable” is first recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. ford: a shallow place in a river or stream where it can be crossed on foot or by vehicle: Il pastore portò il gregge al guado.^{[4][13][14][11][15]}
2. The act of fording: Il guado del torrente fu più lungo del previsto.^{[4][14][11][15]}
3. (figurative) A difficult and uncertain transition, especially in essere in mezzo al guado.^{[4][13][11][15]}
4. (figurative, literary) A hard passage.^[4][13][16]
5. (obsolete) Shallow water; the bottom.^[11][16][10]

Word family

• guadare
• guadabile
• guadoso

guado² woad

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡwa.do/^[1]

Forms

guado m (plural guadi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for woad is borrowed from Lombardic *waid (“dye plant”), the Lombardic name of the plant.^{[2][3][4][13][17]} DEI places it first in Lombardy and the western Veneto, from where it passed into the standard language.^[18] It is akin to Old High German weit and German Waid.^[3][18][7]

The word spread easily, DELI notes, because the Latin name of the dye plant, Latin vitrum, was also the word for “glass”.^[2] A related Germanic base, Proto-Germanic *waizda-, lives on in Gallo-Romance, where Medieval Latin wasdus appears in the Capitulare de villis: from it come Old French guesde, modern French guède, and Occitan gaida.^{[2][3][18][7]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Pistoian document of 1240–1250, in which the word names the blue dye extracted from the plant and used to dye cloth;^[17] Old Italian forms include guato and guatu.^[17] DELI dates the name of the plant from Florentine texts of 1274.^[2]

Semantic evolution

DELI cites studies on the production of woad and the trade in it in the Middle Ages.^[2] Older writers also called it guadone and glasto.^[9][10] Tommaseo's dictionary describes how the leaves were cut for dyeing when they began to turn violet, and Zingarelli records dare il guado, to dye blue with woad.^[10][11]

Its colouring matter is the same as that of indigo.^[12] Devoto–Oli describes the dye as one that was extracted from the plant in the past.^[13]

Timeline

• 10th century – Medieval Latin wasdus appears in the Capitulare de villis.^[2][18]
• 1240–1250 – A Pistoian document uses guado for the blue dye.^[17]
• 1274 – Florentine texts name the plant.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) Dyer's woad (Isatis tinctoria), a plant of the cabbage family with small yellow flowers and bluish-green leaves.^{[4][13][14][15]}
2. The blue dye obtained from its leaves and roots, formerly used to dye cloth.^{[4][13][11][15][17]}