legamento

Forms

legamento m (plural legamenti)^[1] The old and literary form is ligamento.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ligāmentum (“band, bandage”), from ligō (“to tie, bind”), adapted to Italian legare.^[5][3][6][7] Wiktionary treats it as inherited, and REW, which lists Romanian legământ and Old Galician-Portuguese liamento, leaves open a new formation in each language.^[1][8] By surface analysis it is the verb with the suffix -mento.^[1]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb, whose simple form appears only from Catullus on, from a root Proto-Indo-European *liǵ- (“to tie”), with no certain cognates outside Latin.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the word to 1292.^[5] DELI's first record is in Giordano da Pisa's Lenten sermons of 1305, in the sense “the act or effect of tying”.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Old texts used the word for anything that ties: Fra Giordano speaks of the bond of sin, and the Ottimo commentary lists oxen, chains and fetters as kinds of legamento.^[12][6] By extension it meant a feeling of constriction or anguish, in Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi.^[6]

Leonardo da Vinci, before 1519, is the first to use it in anatomy for the bands of fibrous tissue that hold bones together.^[10] Later technical senses came in shipbuilding, for the members that bind a hull together, in fencing, for pressing one's blade against the opponent's, in music, as a synonym of legatura, and in linguistics, for the changes at the boundary between words (raddoppiamento fonosintattico, French liaison).^[11][13]

Timeline

• 1292 – First record.^[5]
• 1305 – Giordano da Pisa uses legamento “act of tying”.^[10]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci uses it for the anatomical ligament.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) The act of tying, or something that ties; a bond, tie.^[11][2][14]
2. (anatomy) A ligament: a band of fibrous connective tissue that joins bones or cartilages or holds an organ in place; also a fold of the peritoneum supporting abdominal organs: lesione dei legamenti della caviglia.^[11][2][14]
3. (nautical) Any member that binds and strengthens the parts of a ship's hull.^[11][2][4]
4. (linguistics) sandhi: a change in a sound at the end or beginning of a word caused by the neighbouring word, as Italian raddoppiamento fonosintattico.^[11][14][4]
5. (fencing) A steady, gradual pressure of one's blade on the opponent's.^[11][2][14]
6. (music) A legatura, a slur or tie.^[11][3][1]

Word family

• legamentoso

Related words

• legare
• legatura
• legame
• Latin ligamentum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c 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. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse