nervo

Forms

nervo m (plural nervi)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin nervus (“sinew, tendon; string; vigour”).^[2][3][4][1] In classical Latin the word meant “tendon, muscle” and “strength”, and the sense “nerve” is Medieval Latin.^[5][6] The inherited outcome of the same Latin word is nerbo, a doublet.^[3][1][2]

The Latin word passed into the Germanic and Slavic languages: German Nerv, English nerve, Russian нерв (nerv), Czech nerv and Polish nerw.^[3] Its Romance outcomes include French nerf and Spanish niervo.^[7][8] Battisti and Alessio derive Lombard gnerf from a Latin variant nervium, which also gave Sardinian nerbiu, Old Occitan nervi and Spanish nervio.^[9]

According to de Vaan, the Latin word comes from an older *neuros by metathesis, as parvus comes from *pauro-.^[10] The Proto-Italic form *(s)nēuros is a thematic form of Proto-Indo-European *snéh₁wr̥ (“sinew, tendon”).^[10][1] Cognates are Ancient Greek νεῦρον (neûron, “sinew, string”), Sanskrit स्नावन् (snā́van, “sinew”) and Armenian նեարդ (neard, “sinew”).^[10] Nocentini adds Avestan snāvarə and, without the extension in ⟨r⟩, Old High German senawa, whence German Sehne and the English word sinew.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bono Giamboni, who died in 1292, is the first to use the word for the anatomical nerve: in his translation of Vegetius he writes that l'acqua nuoce al petto ed allo stomaco ed a' nervi (“water harms the chest, the stomach and the nerves”).^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo notes that the word first named ligaments and tendons and only later the nerves proper, and that the old writers often confused nerves with tendons and arteries.^[12] Old Italian used it for a bowstring (Boccaccio, 1341–1342), for “strength, vigour” (Antonio da Ferrara, before 1370) and for the veins of a leaf (Niccolao da Costantinopoli, 14th century).^[2] Battisti and Alessio add the string of a musical instrument from the 14th century, a piece of the grinder's wheel and a peg of the plough in the 19th century, and “penis” in southern slang.^[9]

The plural nervi for a person's emotional state, as in avere i nervi “to be in a bad mood”, belongs to the modern language.^[4][13] DELI traces the medical sense of nervoso “weak-nerved, irritable” to French nerveux (1788 in this sense), and nervosismo (1862) to French nervosisme;^[2] Mackenzie traced the medical use of the words to Robert Whytt's treatise on nervous diseases, published in Edinburgh in 1765.^[2]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses nervo for the anatomical nerve.^[2]
• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio uses it for a bowstring.^[2]
• About 1350 – Nervoso and nervosità appear in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[2]
• Before 1370 – Antonio da Ferrara uses it in the sense “strength, vigour”.^[2]
• 14th century – Niccolao da Costantinopoli uses it for the veins of a leaf.^[2]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci writes nervatura.^[2]
• 1862 – Nervosismo appears in the title of a book by M. Venturoli.^[2]
• 1869 – Tommaseo records nervoso in the sense “weak-nerved, irritable”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) A nerve: a bundle of nerve fibres in a sheath that carries impulses between the central nervous system and the rest of the body: il nervo ottico.^[4][14][5]
2. (in the plural) A person's nerves, their emotional state; nervous tension, irritability: avere i nervi, to be in a bad mood;^[4][5][13] avere i nervi a pezzi, to be at the end of one's tether.^[4][5][13]
3. (colloquial) A tendon or muscle; a tough fibre in meat: una bistecca piena di nervi.^[4][14][13]
4. (literary, figurative) Strength, vigour: una prosa senza nervo.^[13][14]
5. (botany) The vein of a leaf; a string, as of green beans.^[13][14][1]
6. A whip made of dried sinew, a nerbo.^[13]
7. (literary) The string of a musical instrument; a bowstring.^[14][13]

Word family

• nervoso
• nervatura
• nervino
• nervosismo
• nervosità
• nervetti
• innervare
• innervazione
• snervare
• snervante
• snervato
• innervosire

Related words

• nerbo
• enervare
• neuro-
• Latin nervus
• Ancient Greek νεῦρον (neûron)

Usage notes

Common phrases with the plural are dare sui nervi “to get on someone's nerves”, avere i nervi a fior di pelle “to be on edge”, nervi saldi “steady nerves” and guerra dei nervi “war of nerves”.^[13][5][15] The cranial and spinal nerves are named nervi cranici (or encefalici) and nervi spinali.^[5][14]

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 i j k l m n 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ 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. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2574
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 377
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana