lino

Forms

lino m (plural lini)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin līnum (“flax; linen thread; linen cloth”), a word that has direct descendants in all the Romance languages.^[2][3][4][1] The same word is French lin, Occitan lin, Catalan lli, Spanish lino, Portuguese linho, Sardinian linu and Romanian in.^[3][5] The Latin word also passed into Celtic, as Irish lín, and into Germanic, as German Lein.^[6]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *līnom.^[7][1] It has wide correspondences in the other Indo-European languages: Ancient Greek λίνον (línon, “linen”), Lithuanian lìnas (“flax”), Russian лён (ljon) and Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽 (lein).^[3][7][1] Because the Latin word has a long vowel while the Greek and Balto-Slavic forms have a short one, and Latin also had linteum (“linen cloth”) with ⟨t⟩, de Vaan holds that no common Indo-European form can be reconstructed and that the word was probably borrowed, as the name of the plant, from another language.^[7] Wiktionary traces it, more cautiously, to Proto-Indo-European *līnom.^[1] Nocentini notes that for so simple a word it is hard to tell inherited correspondences from loans that spread with the cultivation of flax,^[3] and the DEI calls it a loan from an unknown language.^[6]

The old adjective “made of linen” is from Latin līneus (“made of flax or linen”), itself formed from the noun;^[4][8][9] GRADIT thinks it was probably remade on the plural, the TLIO allows that it may be the Latin noun used as an adjective,^[4][8] and Zingarelli derives it from the Italian noun.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Glossario di Monza, a glossary of the 10th century.^[8] DELI's first dated record is an inventory of the goods of one Orlando, of 1221, with the sense “flax”, the plant.^[2][4] The sense “textile fibre taken from the plant by retting the stem” is in Dante (1300–1313) and Iacopone (before 1306), and earlier still in the Medieval Latin of Emilia, the Veneto and the Abruzzi.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for the stalks, the raw or worked fibre and the cloth made from it, often naming the kind or the place it came from;^[8] lino stio was a variety sown in March and harvested in summer.^[8] In texts on the three Fates, the linen thread stood for the length of a human life.^[8] Olio di lino, the oil pressed from the seeds, is recorded before 1342 in Domenico Cavalca, and farina di semi di lino, linseed meal for poultices, in 1891.^[2]

In the plural the word came to mean bandages or linens; the DEI dates this use to the 13th century,^[6] and Foscolo writes of lini odorati “scented linens” prepared by the Graces.^[4][11] The adjective was once common, as in calze line “linen stockings” in the Novellino, but now survives only in panno lino, pannilini.^[12][13]

Derivatives name the trade and the industry: linaiolo, a worker or seller of flax, from the 13th century, linone, a fine linen fabric borrowed from French, in 1770, and linificio, a flax mill, in 1834.^[2] Linoleum was coined in England from Latin līnum and oleum “oil”, and appears in Italian in 1895.^[2]

Timeline

• 10th century – The Glossario di Monza records the word.^[8]
• 1221 – The plant is named in the inventory of Orlando's goods.^[2][4]
• 13th century – Linaiolo “flax worker” appears in Ricordano Malispini.^[2]
• 1289 – The adjective lino “of linen” is recorded in a Sienese document.^[8]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the word for the textile fibre.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca writes olio di lino.^[2]
• 1770 – Linone is recorded.^[2]
• 1834 – Linificio is first recorded.^[2]
• 1891 – Farina di semi di lino is recorded.^[2]
• 1895 – Linoleum appears in Italian.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. flax, the annual plant Linum usitatissimum, with blue flowers, grown for its fibre and its oily seeds.^[4][11][14]
2. (botany) Any plant of the genus Linum; capitalised, the genus itself, of the family Linaceae.^[4][12]
3. The textile fibre taken from the plant, and the linen cloth woven from it: una giacca di lino stropicciata.^{[4][11][14][10]}
4. (literary, chiefly in the plural) Linen garments or household linen; bandages and sheets.^[4][11][14]

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Made of linen; today only in panno lino (see pannolino).^[4][11][12]

Word family

• linaiolo
• linoleum
• linificio
• linone
• lineria
• liniero
• linifero
• linizzare
• linacea
• linaria
• lineto
• linetto

Related words

• linea
• linicolo
• lenzuolo
• lenza
• pannolino
• Latin linum

Usage notes

GRADIT has a separate lino that is a clipping of linotype or linotipia.^[4][15] The DEI records a 20th-century archaeological term lino, a mournful song with a refrain from Asia Minor, a learned word from Greek línos, and lino della Nuova Zelanda, the common name of Phormium tenax.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2241
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org