marino

Forms

marino (feminine marina, masculine plural marini, feminine plural marine)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin marīnus (“of the sea”), the adjective of Latin mare (“sea”).^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary also reads it, by surface analysis, as from Italian mare + -ino.^[1] Zingarelli classes it as a learned word, while DEI counts it among the words shared by the western Romance languages.^[5][6]

The same Latin adjective gave French marin and Spanish marino, both of which also became nouns meaning “sailor”.^[3][7] Its feminine became a noun across Romance: Italian marina, French marine, Occitan marina, Catalan marina, Spanish marina and Portuguese marinha.^[3][7][8]

The Latin adjective is formed from the noun with the suffix -īnus.^[9][1] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Italic *mari- (“sea, lake”) and Proto-Indo-European *mor-i- (“sea, lake”), a word that could name any large body of water; the Latin vowel ⟨a⟩ arose by unrounding of ⟨*mo-⟩ in an open syllable.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante's Commedia (1300–1313), where the word means “of the sea”.^[2][4] In Inferno 26 the stars of the southern sky are seen while the northern pole sinks so low che non surgea fuor del marin suolo, “that it did not rise above the floor of the sea”, that is, the sea's surface.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The sense “coming from the sea” is recorded in Boccaccio before 1375.^[2] As a noun, marino meant a sailor in early lyric poetry, in the line Dotto marino fugge tempestanza (“a skilled sailor flees the storm”).^[11][12] This noun fell out of use and was taken up again at the end of the 18th century from French marin; the purist Ugolini objected to marino for a soldier of the navy, but writers such as Guerrazzi and Garibaldi used it.^[11][13]

From the 16th century the noun also names the wind from the sea.^[6][14] Vasari and later writers use il marino for the corrosive salt of the sea air.^[11] In northern Italy the adjective was applied to plants brought from overseas: a 1349 Medieval Latin record of the papal court calls the coconut nux marina.^[6]

Many names of sea creatures are formed with it, such as cavalluccio marino (the sea horse), vitello marino (the seal) and leone marino (the sea lion).^[15][5] Marino pescatore, the herring gull, was modelled on martin pescatore, the kingfisher.^[11][6] Blu marino is the dark blue of sailors' uniforms.^[5] The noun also names fungal diseases of plants, especially the powdery mildew of the vine, because sea winds favour them.^[4][16]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses marino “of the sea” in the Commedia.^[2][11]
• 13th century – The noun marino “sailor” is recorded.^[6][11]
• 1349 – Medieval Latin nux marina “coconut” is recorded at the papal court.^[6]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses the adjective for what comes from the sea.^[2]
• 16th century – Marino is used as a noun for the sea wind.^[6]
• Late 18th century – Marino “sailor” is revived after French marin.^[11]
• 1964 – Marino is recorded as the name of a white wine of the Alban Hills.^[4][17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the sea as a natural element, and of the things that happen in it: le correnti marine del golfo.^[4][14][17]
2. Of a wind or breeze, blowing from the sea onto the land, damp and salty.^[4][16]
3. Living in the sea: piante marine, un mammifero marino.^[4][5]
4. Lying on or facing the sea: un paese marino.^[4][5]
5. Of a deep blue like the sea's, as in blu marino (navy blue).^[4][5][14]
6. (rare) Of navigation; maritime, marittimo.^[4][5]

Noun

1. The wind that blows from the sea.^[14][16]
2. (botany) A common name for some fungal diseases of plants, especially the oidio of the vine.^[4][16]
3. (obsolete) A sailor, marinaio.^[4][5][11]

Word family

• marina
• marinaio
• marinaro
• marinara
• marinaresco
• marinaretto
• marineria
• marinare
• marinatura
• sottomarino
• cismarino
• marinizzare

Related words

• mare
• marittimo
• Latin marinus
• French marin

Usage notes

A separate noun marino (1964) is a dry white wine made around Marino, a town in the Alban Hills in the province of Rome, after which it is named.^[4][14][17] Another marino (1973), a term of engineering, is the rubble from digging a tunnel or from demolition, also called smarino;^[5][3] Nocentini takes it from French marin “building timber”, later “alluvial material”, from Late Latin materiamen.^[5][3] In some dialects ciliegia marina is the fruit of the strawberry tree;^[16] Treccani explains this marino as a dialect word of Mediterranean origin reshaped after the adjective.^[16]

Avere il piede marino is to keep one's balance on a rolling ship, and figuratively to stay calm in difficult situations.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2368
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
14. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
17. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli