lombrico

Forms

lombrico m (plural lombrichi)^[1] Old Italian forms include lumbrico, lonbrico and the plural lombrici.^[2][3] Lucchese ombrico and ombricio were formed from the plural.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lumbrīcus (“earthworm; intestinal worm”), of obscure origin.^[6][7][8][1] The word is used across northern and central Italy, with a few outposts in the south.^[6] The GDLI calls it learned.^[3]

The same word is Old French lombri, Occitan lombric, Catalan llambric, Portuguese lombriga and Romanian limbric.^[7][5] Spanish lombriz comes from the Late Latin variant lumbrix, which also survives in Italian dialects, such as Bergamasque lünbris and Piedmontese lonbris.^[7][9][5]

De Vaan notes that the sense “earthworm” is older and more frequent in Latin than “intestinal worm”, which was a metaphor.^[10] Walde and Hofmann derived the word from a root of lumbus (“loin”), but de Vaan rejects this on phonetic grounds; the ending recalls umbilīcus and formīca, but Latin has no such suffix, and the origin remains unclear.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Florentine translation of the Antidotarium Nicolai, of the late 13th century, in the sense of a parasite of the human or animal intestine.^[2][8] The sense “earthworm” is found in the early 14th century, in a Tuscan treatise on the care of birds of prey.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Tuscan Crescenzi, about 1350, says that ducks eat snakes, earthworms and lizards, and San Bernardino of Siena describes fishing with an earthworm on the hook.^[6][3] Old Italian also had lombrico della terra for the earthworm and male dei lombrichi for worms in the gut.^[2]

In the 17th century Redi wanted large earthworms to study their entrails, and the oil made from them was called lombricato.^[11] The sense “intestinal worm” is now old.^[12][8] Zoology names the genus Lumbricus and the family of earthworms with it.^[8][13] Figuratively the word is used of a base, contemptible person.^[8]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Florentine Antidotarium Nicolai uses lombrichi for intestinal worms.^[2]
• Early 14th century – The word is used for the earthworm.^[2]
• c. 1350 – Crescenzi's treatise uses lombrichi.^[6]
• 1381 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. An earthworm, a long cylindrical worm, usually pink or greyish, that lives in damp soil and helps form humus: Ho trovato un lombrico sotto il vaso.^[8][12][13]
2. (zoology) Any worm of the family of the Lumbricidae; with a capital, the genus Lumbricus.^[8][12][13]
3. (figurative) A base, contemptible person.^[8]
4. (archaic) An intestinal worm, an ascarid.^[8][12]

Word family

• lombricaio
• lombricale
• lumbricide
• lombrichetto

Related words

• Latin lumbrīcus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 601
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli