lavina

Forms

lavina f (plural lavine)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin labina (“landslide; slippery place”), a word of Saint Augustine and Isidore of Seville.^[2][3][4] DELI calls it learned, but the form with ⟨v⟩ is the popular one: Prati takes it from the northern dialects, Venetian lavina and Lombard lavina, and the GDLI calls it a northern word.^[2][5][6]

Medieval Latin documents of the south have it as a place name in 936, in the Codex Cajetanus of 983 and in the Codex Cavensis of 1035, and Paul the Deacon used it in the 8th century.^[2][5] Brescian has the same word for a landslide, with a verb meaning “to slide”, and Neapolitan lavina and Sicilian lavina mean a mountain torrent.^[2][4] German Lawine was borrowed from the same word, according to Nocentini.^[4] Wiktionary instead takes the Italian word from German.^[1] Italian also has a variant with ⟨r⟩, ravina, matching French ravine.^[4]

labina is formed on the root of Latin lābor (“to slip, fall”), beside lābēs (“fall”).^[4][1][3] Devoto compares rovina from ruō (“to fall”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is in Antonio Vallisneri, before 1730, who says that people of the northern Apennines call a frightening slide of earth lavina, as others call it salatta or lezza.^[2][3] The first sense is thus a landslide of earth, not of snow.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In 1768 Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti used the Latinizing labina for great slides of stones in the hills of Pisa, and for slides of earth near Volterra.^[2][8] Muratori glossed lavina as the surface of the earth that rainwater sets moving downhill, sometimes with trees and houses.^[6] In 1803 D'Alberti called labina a neologism of several writers, Tuscans among them, for masses of snow that slide down a mountain, sweeping everything along.^[2]

The modern standard sense is a snowslide in winter or spring.^[9][10] Treccani notes that lavina is sometimes kept for slides of stones, while slides of powdery snow are called slavina, recorded since 1934.^[10][4] Twentieth-century writers such as Jahier and Stuparich use the word for avalanches of snow and for showers of stones.^[6]

Timeline

• 936 – Lavine is recorded as a place name in Medieval Latin.^[2]
• 983 – The Codex Cajetanus has lavina for a stream bed.^[2]
• Before 1730 – Vallisneri records lavina from the northern Apennines.^[2][3]
• 1768 – Targioni Tozzetti writes labine for slides of stones.^[2]
• 1803 – D'Alberti records labina for a snowslide.^[2]
• 1934 – Slavina is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (uncommon) A snowslide, an avalanche of snow in winter or spring; the same as slavina.^{[3][9][11][12]}
2. A landslide of earth or gravel.^[3][13][6]

Word family

• slavina

Related words

• valanga
• lava
• German Lawine

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 581
6. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli