malva

Forms

malva f (plural malve)^[1] Old Italian also has the form Old Italian malba.^[2] In the dialects the word appears as Venetian nalba in Venice and Treviso and as Corsican malma in Corsica.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin malva (“mallow”).^{[4][5][6][7][1]} The word is common to the Romance languages: French mauve (13th century), Occitan malva, Catalan malva, Spanish malva, Portuguese malva and Romanian nalbă.^[5][6][3] Sardinian has narba in the Campidanese dialect.^[3] It was borrowed into Basque as malma,^[6][3] and it passed into the Germanic languages, as German Malwe and English mallow.^[5] The Battisti–Alessio dictionary holds that Malve (16th century) is a direct loan from Italian.^[6]

The Latin word cannot be explained within Indo-European.^[5][8] DELI calls it pre-Indo-European, and Nocentini, Battisti–Alessio and Devoto a Mediterranean word.^[4][5][6][9] It is compared with Ancient Greek μαλάχη (malákhē, “mallow”), which also appears as μολόχη (molókhē), and with Biblical Hebrew מַלּוּחַ (mallūaḥ), the name of a plant.^[8][5][1] De Vaan and Wiktionary consider a Semitic source possible.^[8][1] Nocentini adds that Homeric μῶλυ (môly), the magic herb Hermes gives to Odysseus against the spells of Circe, probably belongs to the same family.^[5]

The botanical names malvacee and malvali are built with the scientific suffixes -acee and -ali, the latter after New Latin -alia.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Tuscan medical recipes of the 13th century, from western Tuscany, where the word names a plant of the mallow family, especially the common mallow Malva sylvestris.^[2] DELI dates the plant name from Boccaccio, 1341–1342.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian malva named several plants of the mallow family and was also used for the marsh mallow, altea.^[2] The Italian versions of Palladius and Crescenzi treat it as a garden and medicinal herb, and Crescenzi distinguishes a cultivated and a wild kind, the wild one being called malvavischio or bismalva.^[10][11] Its leaves and flowers have been used in folk medicine for soothing infusions, decoctions and poultices.^[12][13][7]

From the colour of its flowers the word came to name a pinkish lilac, first recorded as a masculine noun in the Enciclopedia italiana in 1931.^[4] It is also used as an invariable adjective after a noun.^[14][15] A figurative, now dated sense describes a person indifferent or hostile to political and social novelty, a moderate or conservative.^[7][13][16] Devoto–Oli quotes Pirandello's malva di tre cotte for a bitter enemy of every novelty.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – Malva appears in Tuscan medical recipes.^[2]
• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio uses malva for the plant.^[4][7]
• 16th century – German Malve is recorded.^[17][6]
• 16th century – The augmentative malvone appears.^[5]
• 1803 – The adjective malvaceo is recorded, in d'Alberti's dictionary.^[4]
• 1869 – Malvacee is recorded as a noun, the name of the plant family.^[4]
• 1931 – Malva is recorded as the name of a colour.^[4]
• 1973 – Malvali, the plant order, is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) mallow, an annual or perennial herb (Malva sylvestris and related species) with lobed leaves and pinkish purple flowers, used in folk medicine: Raccolse un mazzo di malva lungo il fosso.^{[7][13][15][16]}
2. An infusion or decoction made from mallow leaves and flowers, used as an emollient: Prendi una tazza di malva prima di dormire.^[14][18][7]
3. (botany, capitalised) Malva, the genus of the mallow family.^[7][15][13]
4. (figurative, dated) A person indifferent or hostile to novelty, especially in politics; a conservative.^{[7][13][16][18]}
5. (masculine, invariable) mauve, a lilac colour verging on pink: Il malva le sta bene.^[14][15][7]

Adjective

1. (invariable, after the noun) Mauve, of the pinkish lilac of mallow flowers: Ha comprato delle tende malva.^{[14][15][13][1]}

Word family

• malvacea
• malvaceo
• malvale
• malvone
• malvarosa

Related words

• malvavischio
• Latin malva
• French mauve
• English mallow

Usage notes

Common names of other plants are formed with the word: malva canapina (Althaea cannabina), malva regina (Lavatera trimestris) and malva rosa or malvarosa, the hollyhock, also called malvone.^[16] The GDLI records two rare old words of the same spelling: malva “malice”, in Savonarola, of uncertain origin, and the interjection malva! “keep away!”, in San Bernardino da Siena, perhaps from mal va!.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2336
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 269
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
17. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
18. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 583