mammola

Forms

mammola f (plural mammole)^[1]

Etymology

The flower is named after an older sense of the word, “little girl”: it is the “child violet”, a small and delicate flower.^[2][3][4][5] That sense is found only in Italy, and the word is inherited from Latin mammula, a diminutive of mamma.^[2][3][4][6] DELI, Sabatini–Coletti and Zingarelli give the Latin word the sense “little breast”;^[2][4][5][3] Nocentini gives it the sense “little mother”, which passed to “little girl” because a mother would call her small daughter “little mother”, a habit still alive in the southern dialects.^[2][4][5][3] GRADIT derives it within Italian, from the word for “mother” with a feminine diminutive suffix.^[7] In 1541 Firenzuola explained that the violets were so called as if they were “flowers for little girls”.^[2]

Another explanation makes it a variant of bambola “doll”, with the southern change of /mb/ to /mm/ and the initial /b/ assimilated to it: so Devoto, Devoto–Oli and the GDLI, after Rohlfs.^[8][9][10] Treccani calls it a children's word meaning “little girl” or “doll”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Venetian document of 1316, where mammola means a maidservant.^[12] The flower is named first in the phrase mammole viole in Pulci, before 1484, and as a noun in Savonarola, before 1498.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian mammola also meant a little girl.^[13][14] From the 14th century it also meant a midwife.^[13][14] Tommaseo marks both as obsolete.^[13] The flower name won out: Savonarola describes saints holding viole e mammole, “violets and sweet violets”.^[10][2] Redi, as Baruffaldi reports, also explained the name from “maiden”, because these flowers are humble and modest.^[10]

The modesty of the flower gave the figurative sense of a shy, modest person, often ironic, and the literary sense “young girl, virgin”.^[7][4][5] In slang it has meant a prostitute or a passive homosexual man.^[9][4] From the 16th century mammolo names a Tuscan grape and its wine, which smell of violets.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1316 – A Venetian document uses mammola for a maidservant.^[12]
• Before 1484 – Pulci has mammole viole.^[2]
• Before 1498 – Savonarola uses mammola for the flower.^[2]
• 1541 – Firenzuola explains the name as “flowers for little girls”.^[2]
• 16th century – Mammolo names a Tuscan grape and wine.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The sweet violet (Viola odorata), with heart-shaped leaves and fragrant violet flowers; also called viola mammola.^{[7][5][9][15]}
2. (figurative) A shy, modest person, or one who pretends to be: fare la mammola.^[7][4][5]
3. (literary) A young girl; a virgin.^[7][4][5]
4. (slang) A prostitute.^[9]

Adjective

1. (invariable, after a noun) Of or like the sweet violet: uva mammola, a grape that smells of it;^[7][15][1] carciofo mammola, a kind of artichoke.^[7][15][1]

Word family

• mammolo
• mammoletta
• mammolina
• mammolone

Related words

• mamma
• mammella
• bambola

Usage notes

DEI records a separate mammola in place names for a small isolated hill shaped like a breast, from the same Latin mammula, and compares Spanish mambla “isolated hillock”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 595
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2339
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana