musaragno

Forms

musaragno m (plural musaragni)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin musaraneus, a compound of mūs (“mouse”) and arāneus (“spider”).^[2][3][4][5] The literal sense is a mouse no bigger than a spider.^[6][7][8] Pliny writes mūs arāneus apart, and Isidore writes them together of Seville in the 7th century.^[6][9]

The same compound gave French musaraigne, Spanish musaraña and Portuguese musaranho.^[2][10][11] DEI notes that the word is common in the Alpine dialects of Italy and appears in the Paduan surname ⟨Musaragni⟩ in 1275, where it means “thin, slight”.^[6] In the standard language it is late: DEI cites a form in ⟨muse-⟩ from the French-Italian dictionary of Oudin in the 17th century, and the modern dictionaries date the Italian word from 1834.^[6][3][7][4]

The Latin word is inherited from Proto-Italic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs (“mouse”), the source also of Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs) and Old High German mūs.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dictionaries date the Italian word from 1834, as a name of the toporagno, the shrew.^[3][7][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo's dictionary, in the 19th century, gives it as the Italian name of the genus Sorex, small insect-eating mammals named for their small size and their likeness to mice, and notes that museragnolo was more common.^[9] In modern Italian toporagno is the usual word, and GRADIT marks musaragno as uncommon.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 7th century – Isidore of Seville writes Latin musaraneus as one word.^[6]
• 1275 – The surname Musaragni is recorded at Padua.^[6]
• 17th century – Oudin's dictionary has a form in muse-.^[6]
• 1834 – Musaragno is first recorded in Italian.^[3][7][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology, uncommon) A shrew, the same as toporagno.^[3][7][8][1]

Related words

• toporagno
• ragno
• muscolo
• French musaraigne
• Latin mūs
• Latin arāneus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b 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. 2534
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill