lambrusca

Forms

lambrusca f (plural lambrusche)^[1] Old Italian texts also spell it lanbrusca and lonbrusca, recorded in the plural lanbrusche and lonbrusche.^[2] The form labrusca is also current.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin labrusca (“wild vine”), through the Late Latin variant lambrusca that the glosses record.^[6][7][8] The classical word, used from Virgil on, had no ⟨m⟩; the nasal inserted before the labial is seen in other words too, such as strambo, and Schuchardt showed that the change is found everywhere.^[6][4] The Romance forms go back both to labrusca and to lambrusca, and the type with ⟨m⟩ is that of Italy, France and Catalonia.^[8][9][10]

The same word is Old French lambruis, French lambruche, Occitan lambrusco and Catalan llambrusca.^[7][10] French lambris (“panelling”) is the same word too.^[7][10] The form without the nasal lives on in Tuscan and gave Italian abrostine, the popular name of the same vine.^[8][7][11] Treccani calls the Italian word Emilian in origin.^[12]

The origin of labrusca is unknown.^[7][13][14] Nocentini takes it, with labruscum (“fruit of the wild vine”), as a borrowing from an unidentified source, as words for wine often are.^[7] Ancient grammarians linked it with Latin labrum (“lip”) or with the edge of a field, and Devoto saw a Mediterranean word, perhaps related to laburnum.^[1][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the poems of Giovanni Quirini, of the early 14th century, in a Tuscan coloured by Venetian, where the word names the wild vine.^[2][11] The Tuscan translation of Crescenzi's treatise on farming, of about 1350, defines the plant: le lambrusche ... sono viti salvatiche (“lambrusche ... are wild vines”).^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the vine the word passed to its grape, white or black, with very small bunches and berries, valued for its flower.^[2][16] An Italian translation of the Bible uses it for a vine that blossoms, and the masculine lambrusco named the grapes themselves in Crescenzi.^[16][17]

Later writers kept the botanical sense: Savonarola notes that the lambrusca is a wild vine that Noah planted to make good wine, and Mattioli's Dioscoride describes two kinds of it.^[16] Tommaseo lists abrostino as the current Tuscan name of the vine, whose sour grapes set the teeth on edge.^[17] Parenti remarked that today the plant should be called cultivated rather than wild.^[6] The masculine lambrusco, from Latin labruscum, became the name of an Emilian vine and of its red sparkling wine.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – Giovanni Quirini uses lambrusca.^[11][2]
• c. 1350 – The Tuscan Crescenzi defines lambrusche as wild vines.^[6]
• 14th century – The masculine lambrusco is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (agriculture) A kind of vine and its grape, the same as abrostine.^{[11][3][4][5]}

Word family

• lambrusco

Related words

• abrostine
• Latin labrusca
• French lambris

References

1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ a b c d e f 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 g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
9. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
17. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET