legname

Forms

legname m (plural legnami)^[1] An old form is Old Italian legniame.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Italian legno + -ame, with the collective suffix, for Nocentini, Devoto–Oli, Sabatini–Coletti, Zingarelli and the GDLI, who note the model of Late Latin lignāmen (“wooden framework”).^{[3][4][5][6][2]} GRADIT, Treccani, Gabrielli and DEI derive it from that Latin word itself, and Wiktionary treats it as inherited from Early Medieval Latin, where the word appears in the Edict of Rothari.^{[7][8][9][10][1]} DELI notes that the Latin noun is recorded only late, in the glosses, and that Medieval Latin lignamen is found at Venice in 1271.^[11] The REW lists the Romance outcomes of the Latin word but allows that they may be new formations.^[12]

The Latin word continues in Sardinian linnamine, Occitan lenham and Catalan llenyam, and Italian lent Spanish leñame.^[10][12]

legno comes from lignum (“wood”), which first meant wood gathered for burning, as opposed to māteria (“building timber”).^[11][3] It goes back through Proto-Italic *legno- to Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect”), from which legō (“to gather; to read”) also comes, with the regular change of *-egn- to ⟨-ign-⟩.^[13][3] De Vaan also cites a derivation from a root meaning “to lie”, as “fallen wood”, and finds both equally possible.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a 12th-century Pisan ship account, in the sense “wood for working”.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

The collective sense “a set of pieces of wood” is in the Ottimo commento to Dante in the 14th century.^[11] Old texts use the word for wood as a building material: Giamboni lists the makers of siege towers di legname, and Guido da Pisa writes of people who had houses only of wood and branches.^[2] A maestro di legname was a carpenter, as in Sacchetti.^[8][6] In the plural the word once also meant plain wooden furniture or utensils.^[6][9]

Modern usage distinguishes legname da opera, for building and woodwork, from legname da ardere, firewood.^[8][6]

Timeline

• 12th century – A Pisan ship account has the first record.^[11][3]
• 1271 – Medieval Latin lignamen is recorded at Venice.^[11]
• 14th century – The Ottimo commento uses the collective sense.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. timber, lumber: wood cut into logs, planks or beams as a material for building and woodwork: Il camion porta legname alla segheria.^[7][4][8][1]
2. Firewood, especially in legname da ardere.^[5][6]
3. (obsolete, chiefly plural) Wooden furniture or utensils.^[6][9]

Related words

• legno
• legna
• falegname
• Latin lignum

Usage notes

Maestro di legname “carpenter” is obsolete; today the word is falegname.^[8][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8, 930
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2196
11. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill