monticello

Forms

monticello m (plural monticelli)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian montisello and the shortened Old Italian monticel.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin monticellus (“hillock”), a diminutive of Latin mōns (“mountain”), and it is also felt as the diminutive of monte.^[1][3][4] Medieval Latin montexellus is recorded at Bologna in 1250.^[2] The same Late Latin word gave Romanian muncel, Dalmatian mundal, French monceau (“heap”), Old Occitan moncel and Spanish montecillo.^[5][6] From the French word Meyer-Lübke derives Sicilian muntsiddu, and compares Italian monzicchio.^[5]

mōns continues Proto-Italic *monti-, from Proto-Indo-European *mon-ti- (“protrusion, height”), related to Welsh mynydd (“mountain”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the word to 1292.^[8] The GDLI's first quotation, from Bono Giamboni, tells of three hundred soldiers who took a monticello held by the enemy: a small hill.^[2] Prati also cites Giamboni for the sense “heap”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word kept its first sense, a hill of modest height, in Boccaccio, Boiardo and Ariosto, and in later prose down to Verga and Cassola.^[2][10] By extension it named a raised mound of earth or stones, natural or man-made, a tumulus, and in the Fatti di Cesare Caesar stands on a small mound of earth.^[2] Today it also means a small heap of any material.^[4][3]

In anatomy the monticello is a lobule of the upper vermis of the cerebellum, with a raised front part, the culmen, and a lower back part, the declive.^[4][3] The word is a frequent place name: a Monticello is recorded in the Paduan codex in 983.^[9] Old Italian formed the verbs monticellare and ammonticellare, to heap up.^[9]

Timeline

• 983 – A place called Monticello is recorded in a Paduan codex.^[9]
• 1250 – Medieval Latin montexellus is recorded at Bologna.^[2]
• 1292 – Nocentini's date of the first Italian record.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small mountain, a hillock or low rise.^[4][3][1]
2. A raised mound of earth and stones, natural or artificial.^[4]
3. A small heap of things or material: un monticello di foglie secche.^[4][3][1]
4. (anatomy) A lobule of the upper vermis of the cerebellum, made up of the culmen and the declive.^[4][3]

Word family

• monticellare

Related words

• monte
• monzicchio
• Latin mōns
• French monceau

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 10
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 676
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET