midollo

Forms

midollo m (plural (collective or figurative meanings) midolla f or (literal meaning) midolli m)^[1] The old and dialect form is Old Italian medollo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Italian midolla (“marrow; soft inside of bread”), turned into a masculine noun.^{[5][2][6][7][8]} Wiktionary also allows a masculine Vulgar Latin *medullum beside the feminine.^[1]

The feminine noun comes from Latin medulla (“marrow; pith; inner part”), a word of uncertain origin that became popular early.^[9][10] Latin used it mostly in the plural medullae.^[10] The same word is French moelle (Old French meolle), Occitan mezola, Spanish meollo, Portuguese miolo, Sardinian meuddu and Romanian măduvă.^[10][11][1] The central dialects, Tuscan among them, also have mirolla and merolla, which DEI finds in Tuscany, Emilia, the Marche, Umbria, Rome, Naples and parts of Sicily.^[12][10]

Nocentini takes these forms with /r/ to keep the original consonant, which Old Irish smiur (“marrow”) and Old High German smero (“fat”) confirm; the /d/ of medulla would then come from a popular link with Latin medius (“middle”).^[10] De Vaan also connects the Latin word with Proto-Indo-European *smer-u- (“marrow”), although the change of /r/ to /d/ is the opposite of what one expects: he explains it as a hypercorrection and accepts the comparison for the time being.^[13][1] The OLD calls the origin doubtful.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is botanical: in 1304 Fra Giordano da Pisa uses midollo for the soft tissue in the centre of a stem.^[9][5] The GDLI quotes him on the order of nature in a tree, its bark, wood and pith.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The anatomical sense, the soft whitish tissue inside the bones, is dated by DELI to Cristoforo Landino, before 1498, and the general sense of the soft inner part of any animal or plant body to F. F. Frugoni, before 1686.^[9] The feminine midolla, meanwhile, came to mean above all the soft inside of a loaf.^[9]

The figurative phrases are modern: penetrare fino al midollo “to go to the heart of something” is recorded in 1650, fino al midollo “through and through” in Carducci (1861), and bagnarsi fino al midollo “to be soaked to the skin” in Collodi (1881–83).^[9] Anatomy gave the terms midollo spinale, midollo allungato and midollo osseo, the last after scientific Latin medulla oblongata in the case of the medulla.^[15][12] In trade the word also names the flexible stems of rattan palms used for chairs and armchairs.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 1304 – Fra Giordano da Pisa uses midollo for the pith of plants.^[9][5]
• Before 1498 – Cristoforo Landino uses it for the marrow of bones.^[9]
• 1650 – Penetrare fino al midollo is recorded.^[9]
• Before 1686 – F. F. Frugoni uses it for the soft inner part of a body.^[9]
• 1861 – Carducci writes fino al midollo “completely”.^[9]
• 1881–1883 – Collodi writes bagnarsi fino al midollo.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) marrow, the soft whitish tissue enclosed by bone: midollo spinale (the spinal cord), midollo allungato (the medulla oblongata), midollo osseo (bone marrow).^[5][2][15]
2. Beef or veal marrow as food, cooked in various ways.^[5]
3. (botany) pith, the soft tissue in the centre of stems and roots.^[5][2][3]
4. (commerce) The pliant stems of rattan palms, used to make chairs and other furniture by hand.^[5][2]
5. (figurative, often plural) The innermost part of the mind or of a thing; the core of a question or speech: è romano fino al midollo.^[5][3][7]
6. (figurative) Strength of character, backbone: senza midollo, spineless.^[2][7]

Word family

• smidollare
• smidollato
• midolloso
• midollino
• midollone
• midollo spinale
• midollo osseo

Related words

• midolla
• midollare
• Latin medulla
• French moelle

Usage notes

The plural is i midolli in the literal sense, rarely used, and the feminine le midolla in the collective and figurative senses (fino alle midolla).^[2][15][1] The vowel of the stressed syllable is closed /o/ in the neutral pronunciation.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 10, 369
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2455
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Canepari, Luciano, DiPI: Dizionario di pronuncia italiana, online ed., dipionline.it