imbuto

Forms

imbuto m (plural imbuti)^[1] Old Italian also has imbutu and Old Italian inbutu.^[2] Zingarelli records an obsolete Old Italian embuto, and Prati gives the rustic umbuto and the popular ombuto.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin imbūtum, recorded in Late Latin in the 5th century, the neuter of imbūtus (“soaked, filled”), past participle of imbuō (“to soak, imbue”).^[5][6][7][1] Devoto–Oli and Treccani treat the noun as a Vulgar Latin *imbūtum.^[8][9] The form matches, but the sense does not: scholars usually stretch “soaked” to “filled”, though the funnel is rather the thing that fills, as Mussafia observed.^[5][4] Nocentini and the REW suppose that the participle first qualified traiectōrium (“funnel”) and took on its sense when that noun was dropped.^[10][11][12]

The same word is Occitan embut, Catalan embut, Spanish embudo and Portuguese embude.^[10][11] In Italy it belongs to the northwest, the centre and the south.^[11][12] Körting also noted Pieri's derivation from Vulgar Latin *imbūtor (“one who soaks”), which Prati rejects.^[13][4]

DELI calls the origin of the Latin verb unknown.^[5] Nocentini compares Latin imber (“rain”).^[10] De Vaan, after Weiss, starts from the participle and derives it from Proto-Indo-European *h₁en (“in”) and Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”), a word applied especially to steeping things in a liquid.^[14][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in a Sienese collection of proverbs from about 1300, in the sense of a tool with a wide conical mouth and a narrow tube, used to filter or pour liquids.^[2] DELI's first date is the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, about 1350.^[5] Place names had appeared earlier: Tuscan places called Imbuto are recorded from 1033 (Imbuta, 1027), and imbutum occurs in a Latin charter from Genoa of 1268.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The tool has kept its sense since Old Italian.^[2][6] The Crescenzi translation has the sick man take in the fumes of hot wine per imbuto, through a funnel, and Firenzuola compares a shape to quel piccolo instrumento che voi chiamate l'imbuto.^[15]

The shape gave the word to other things: Prati records a mushroom with a cap like a wide funnel, and the adjective imbutiforme is in Vallisneri, before 1730.^[4][10] In zoology it names the siphon of cephalopods, through which water is expelled.^[6][7] Sabatini–Coletti date the extended sense, a narrowing after a wider space, from 1911.^[7] The phrase a imbuto describes anything funnel-shaped, and mangiare con l'imbuto is to eat in great haste.^[8][16]

Timeline

• 1027 – A Tuscan place name Imbuta is recorded.^[4]
• 1268 – Imbutum occurs in a Latin charter from Genoa.^[4]
• c. 1300 – A Sienese collection of proverbs has the first Italian record.^[2]
• Before 1320 – GRADIT's date for the word.^[6]
• c. 1350 – The translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi uses imbuto.^[5]
• Before 1730 – Imbutiforme “funnel-shaped” is recorded.^[10]
• 1911 – The extended sense “bottleneck, narrowing” is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A funnel: a cone-shaped tool ending in a narrow tube, used to pour liquids or powders into a container with a narrow mouth.^[6][8][7]
2. Anything shaped like a funnel, especially a place that narrows after a wider space, a bottleneck.^[6][7][1]
3. (zoology) The siphon of cephalopods, through which water and waste are expelled and which also drives the animal forward.^[6][8][7]
4. (chemistry) In imbuto separatore, a separatory funnel, used in the laboratory to separate two liquids that do not mix.^[7]
5. (geology) In imbuto eruttivo, the top end of a volcano's vent.^[8][7]
6. (historical) A unit of area and of dry capacity used at Cagliari before the metric system.^[6]

Word family

• imbutiforme
• imbutino

Related words

• imbuire
• imbevere
• Latin imbuō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 548
5. ^ a b c d e 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 g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1946
13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli