Etymologically
Log in

lume

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Italian word lume

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1200s Chiaro Davanzati More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin lumen
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *lewk-
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin lūmen
Aromanian lumi
Italian lume
English lumen
From the same root
Latin lūmināre ← lūmen
Latin lūminō ← lūmen
Latin lūminōsus ← lūmen

Pronunciation

Forms

lume m (plural lumi)[1] Old forms include lome, lumo and a feminine plural lumora.[2][3] A learned variant lumine is also recorded.[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lūmen (“light”).[6][7][8][1] The same word is Occitan lum, Catalan llum, Spanish lumbre, Portuguese lume, Sardinian lumu and Romanian lume, which means “world” as a calque of the Old Church Slavonic word for both “light” and “world”.[7][9][10] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance neuter for it, with several later types of form and gender across the languages.[11] Some Italian dialect forms suppose a feminine, Rohlfs's ⟨illa lumen⟩.[6]

The Latin noun comes from Proto-Italic *louksmən, from a form Proto-Indo-European *léwk-s-mn̥ of the root Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“to shine”), so it is related to Latin lūx (“light”) and lūna (“moon”).[12][7][1][13] Devoto describes it as an instrument noun, “a thing that gives light”, and Nocentini notes that this concrete sense survives in the Romance words.[14][7] In the Latin of the Gospels the word became a synonym of the noun for “light”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Chiaro Davanzati in the 13th century, with the sense “brightness, glow”, and the Cassino glosses have lo lume as the opposite of darkness.[6] Zingarelli dates the word to 1266.[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for any source of light, the lamp or candle itself (Dante, 1313–1319) and, by extension, a star (in the 14th century).[6][2] Figurative senses followed: the faculty of sight and, in the plural, the eyes, as in Petrarch's que' duo bei lumi; whatever enlightens the mind or soul; and a famous person, a luminare, in Petrarch in 1374.[6][8] Dante also calls God l'alto lume and the blessed souls lumi.[8][5] In Leonardo the word is a painters' term, the light set against the shadow.[6]

In the 18th century the word took colour from French usage, and il secolo dei lumi is a calque of French siècle des lumières.[6] The plural lumi “advice, explanations” and the technical senses, the inside of a hollow organ and the mesh size of a fishing net, are modern.[8][15] The phrase essere al lumicino, “to be near the end”, is first found before 1665, and DELI cites two explanations: the small lamp set by the bed of the dying in the Florentine hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, or the lamp held to their lips to see whether they still breathed.[6]

Timeline

  • 1200s – Chiaro Davanzati uses lume for “light, brightness”.[6]
  • 1266 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.[4]
  • 1313–1319 – Dante uses the word for a lamp.[6]
  • 1300s – Lume “star” in P. degli Ugurgieri, and “sight” in Mazzeo Bellebuoni.[6]
  • 1374 – Petrarch uses it for a famous person.[6]
  • Before 1519 – Leonardo uses it as a painting term.[6]
  • Before 1665 – Essere al lumicino is recorded in Lippi.[6]
  • 1808 – Lumaio, a maker or seller of lamps, is recorded.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A lamp or other means of lighting, especially one that is not electric, such as a candle or an oil lamp; also a movable electric lamp: Spegni il lume prima di dormire.[8][3][1]
  2. Light, glow: leggere al lume della luna.[8][16]
  3. (figurative, usually plural) Advice, explanations: chiedere lumi.[8][15]
  4. (anatomy) The inside of a hollow organ, a canal or a cell; the lumen.[8][15][1]
  5. (fishing) The size of the meshes of a net.[8][4]
  6. (painting) The rendering of light and its effects in a picture.[8][3]
  7. (literary) A star.[8][16]
  8. (literary, in the plural) The eyes.[8][16]
  9. (literary) A person of outstanding merit, a luminare.[8][3]
  10. (literary) God; a blessed soul.[8][5]
  11. (figurative) What enlightens the mind: il lume della ragione.[4][15]

Word family

  • allumare
  • lumicino
  • lumino
  • lumeggiare
  • lumaio
  • luminello
  • barlume
  • illuminare
  • illuminismo
  • luminare
  • luminaria
  • luminio
  • luminoso
  • luce
  • lumiera
  • lumen

Usage notes

Set phrases include a lume di naso “by instinct, at a guess”, perdere il lume della ragione “to lose one's temper” and reggere il lume “to play gooseberry”.[4][15] The GDLI has a separate lume, an old aphaeretic form of allume “alum”.[17] In the dialects of the north and south lume also names the firefly, lucciola.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  11. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
  12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  15. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  17. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 274
  18. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2282

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Lume.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/lume. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·