gufo

Forms

gufo m (plural gufi)^[1] Old Italian also wrote ghufo.^[2] Tuscany kept the older bufo, recorded in Florentine in 1364.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin gūfo, a Late Latin form recorded once, in a 9th-century gloss on the night bird, which a later hand corrected to a form with ⟨b⟩.^[5][3] It is a variant of būfō, the rustic form of būbō (“owl”), with the first consonant changed to imitate the bird's call differently.^[5][6][7] The ⟨f⟩ between vowels shows that the rustic form came from an Osco-Umbrian dialect.^[8][3] Nocentini explains the Italian word from the oblique form ending in ⟨-ōnem⟩, with the ending dropped as if it were the augmentative suffix -one, and Wiktionary posits a spoken Latin *gūfus.^[8][1] The LEI sees the change of ⟨b⟩ to ⟨g⟩ as a dissimilation.^[3]

Zaccaria derived the word from Old High German hūwo (“owl”), and Körting reported a link with a supposed Old High German *gufan (“to cry”).^[9][10] These Germanic origins have been rejected: Meyer-Lübke rejected a direct connection with that verb, and Prati rejected Gamillscheg's Lombardic source.^[4][11] DEI takes the word as onomatopoeic, perhaps Germanic, but supported by the Latin word for “owl”.^[12]

The form with ⟨g⟩ continues in Nice (gofo) and in Old French guvet.^[3][4][8] The other languages continue the form with ⟨b⟩: Spanish búho, Portuguese bufo, Romanian bufă and Aromanian bufu.^[8][1][3] Nocentini notes that the owl's call was imitated in the same way in Greek and Armenian names for the bird.^[8][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Bestiario moralizzato of the 13th century, from the Arezzo and Città di Castello area, where it names the nocturnal bird of prey.^[2] DELI's first dated use is in Cecco Angiolieri, before 1313.^[5]

Semantic evolution

By the late 14th century the bird stood for an unsociable person: Franco Sacchetti, before 1400, uses it so.^[5] Poliziano has the verb gufare for imitating the owl's call to mock someone, and the noun for a person mocked, from a game called “the owl”.^[5][13][11] Old texts also use gufo for a priest and, in Machiavelli, for the fur worn by the canons of certain churches.^[11][14]

In the 19th century Giusti formed gufaggine “the habit of living shut away” (1841).^[5][8] In the 20th century gufare took the sense “to bring bad luck”, and young people's fare il gufo means to wish someone ill luck.^[8][7] Gufo was also the name of the first Italian radar, used at the end of the Second World War.^[6]

Timeline

• 9th century – Late Latin gufo is recorded in a gloss.^[5]
• 13th century – The Bestiario moralizzato gives the first Italian record.^[2]
• Before 1313 – Cecco Angiolieri uses gufo.^[5]
• 1364 – Florentine bufo is recorded for a large night bird.^[3]
• Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses it for an unsociable person.^[5]
• Before 1480 – Poliziano uses gufare for imitating the owl's call.^[5]
• 1841 – Giuseppe Giusti uses gufaggine.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An owl: a nocturnal bird of prey with a large head, big round eyes and a short hooked beak, in popular belief a bird of ill omen.^[6][15][1]
2. (zoology) The long-eared owl (Asio otus), with long ear tufts;^[6][16][17] gufo reale is the eagle owl (Bubo bubo).^[6][16][17]
3. (figurative) A gloomy, unsociable person.^[6][16][7]
4. (figurative, slang) A person who brings bad luck, a jinx;^[16][7][18] fare il gufo, to wish someone ill luck.^[16][7][18]
5. (nautical, historical) A device for jamming enemy radar, used in the Second World War.^[16][14]

Word family

• gufaggine
• gufare
• aggufito
• gufetto

Related words

• bufo
• bubbolare
• bofonchiare
• Latin būbō

Usage notes

A Venetian gufo (also cufo), meaning “bent, stooping”, is a separate word, from Greek kyphós “bent”.^[19][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 7, 1415
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 541
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1890
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ 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
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET