malvavischio

Forms

malvavischio m (uncountable)^[1] Old forms include malvavisco, malbavischio, malvaviscu and malvisco.^[2] GDLI also records malvalischio, malvanisco and a feminine malvavischia.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin malva hibiscus (“mallow hibiscus”), a phrase made of malva (“mallow”) and hibiscus (“marsh mallow”).^{[4][5][6][7][1][8]} Tommaseo cites Latin malvaviscum in Apuleius.^[9] Devoto explains the ending by a crossing with vischio (“mistletoe; birdlime”).^[10]

The same phrase gave Spanish malvavisco, Portuguese malvaísco and Catalan malví, and Sardinian parmariscu, with palma crossed in.^[8][11] In Piedmont and Lombardy a euphemistic buonvischio grew up, as in Emilian bonavisc at Piacenza and Mantua, with bonus (“good”) put for malus (“bad”).^[12][11][13]

The word for mallow is probably Mediterranean, perhaps Semitic, beside Biblical Hebrew מַלּוּחַ (mallūaḥ) and Ancient Greek μαλάχη (malákhē).^[14][1] The second word is from Ancient Greek ἰβίσκος (ibískos, “marsh mallow”), perhaps of Gaulish origin.^[1][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the late 13th-century Florentine translation of the Antidotarium Nicolai, for plants of the mallow family, and especially the marsh mallow.^[2] DEI dates it to 1329, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli to the 14th century.^[12][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian medical and agricultural texts use the root of the plant in remedies: Bencivenni and the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi name it, and Crescenzi calls the wild mallow malvavischio and bismalva.^[13][9][3] Later it was applied to many exotic plants of the mallow family.^[13]

DEI finds the word in Tuscany, Liguria, Emilia, Veneto and Sicily.^[12] The modern dictionaries give it as another name of the altea (Althaea officinalis) and of the malva canapina.^[4][16][1]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Florentine Antidotarium Nicolai uses malvavischio.^[2]
• 1329 – DEI's date for the word.^[12]
• 14th century – The Italian translation of Crescenzi names the wild mallow malvavischio.^[9][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The marsh mallow (Althaea officinalis), whose root is used in medicine; the same as altea.^[4][5][6][1]
2. (botany) The malva canapina (Althaea cannabina).^[4][16][1]

Related words

• malva
• ibisco
• altea
• bismalva
• vischio
• Spanish malvavisco

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2337
13. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)