letame

Forms

letame m (plural letami)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian ledame, Old Italian leame and Old Italian litame.^[2] Dialect forms include Venetian loame and Ligurian liame.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin laetāmen (“manure”), a neuter noun formed from laetō (“to manure”), which comes from laetus: before it meant “glad”, this adjective meant “fertile, rich”.^[5][6][7][8] Manure was thus “what makes fertile”, and Devoto counts the word among the many farming terms of the Latin vocabulary.^[9][10] Zingarelli alone calls the word learned.^[11]

The Latin word is well represented in the Italian dialects, where it sometimes met lutum (“mud”): the /u/ of Lucchese and Abruzzese forms and of Dalmatian lotum comes from it.^[12][3] Outside Italy it survives in Sardinian ledamine, while the rest of Romance continues fimus (“dung”) instead.^[6][12] Spanish borrowed the word as Spanish letame.^[1]

De Vaan finds no sound etymology for the adjective: he calls the old connection with largus and lāridum (“bacon”) very artificial.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin documents of Emilia and the Veneto already write ledamen, letamen and lotamen in the 13th century.^[5] The first Italian record is in the Sienese accounts of Mattasalà, from 1233–1243, for stable litter and animal dung used to fertilize the fields.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian letame was both the dung itself and the fermented mixture spread as fertilizer.^[2] Cenne da la Chitarra pictured a farm “with dung below and pitchforks above”, and in Boccaccio a man washes so that the smell of dung will not betray him to the queen.^[14][15] Fra Giordano defended it as part of creation: dung and mud are God's creatures, “not foul, but pure and beautiful in their degree”.^[14]

Already in the 14th century the word could stand for what is foul and morally corrupt, and also, in a positive light, for fertility.^[2] The sense “filth, squalor” is dated from Daniello Bartoli, before 1685.^[5] Old Tuscan had a verb letare “to soil with dung”, and Sicilian one meaning “to manure”, from laetō.^[16] letamaio, the dung heap, appeared in the 16th century and soon meant any filthy place.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 13th century – Medieval Latin ledamen, letamen and lotamen are recorded in Emilia and the Veneto.^[5]
• 1233–1243 – Letame appears in the Sienese accounts of Mattasalà.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the word.^[5]
• Before 1336 – Cenne da la Chitarra uses letame.^[5][14]
• 1500–1553 – Lettamaro “dung heap” appears in Straparola.^[5]
• Before 1685 – The sense “filth” is recorded in Daniello Bartoli.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. manure, dung: stable litter mixed with the droppings of livestock and left to ferment, used as an organic fertilizer: In primavera interrano il letame nella vigna.^[7][10][11]
2. (by extension) Filth, squalor.^[7][10][17]
3. (figurative) Moral corruption, depravity.^[7][10][18]

Word family

• letamaio
• letamare
• alletamare

Related words

• lieto
• Latin laetāmen

Usage notes

Letame artificiale is a compost made from plant waste, chemical fertilizers and water.^[11][19]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2210
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 588
17. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
19. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)