nievo

Forms

nievo m (plural nievi)^[1] The TLIO records Old Italian nevo beside nievo.^[2] The word is Ligurian nevo in Genoese.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Venetian nievo, from the nominative Latin nepōs (“grandson; nephew”).^{[5][6][7][8][9]} Standard nipote continues the accusative nepōtem, while this word keeps the nominative, as Rohlfs showed.^[4] Devoto explains the /v/ by the northern lenition of /p/.^[10] Old French had the same nominative form, Old French nies, beside the accusative nevot.^[3]

DEI notes that the nominative type now survives in the Veneto only in a few places in Istria, and that it is alive in Genoese, in the Grisons and in the Gallo-Italic colonies of Sicily.^[8]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *nepōts and Proto-Indo-European *h₂nep-ōt-, a male descendant other than a son, the source also of Old English nefa and Old High German nevo.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in a Venetian translation of the Pamphilus from about 1250, with the sense “grandson” or “nephew”, the same as nipote.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Outside Venetian texts the word appears in the chivalric poems: L'Intelligenza and La Spagna use it of Orlando, and Luigi Pulci's Morgante has odo se' nievo a Buovo d'Agrismonte (“I hear you are the nephew of Buovo d'Agrismonte”).^[4][9][12] It has since dropped out of the standard language and is marked obsolete.^[5][6] It survives as the Venetian surname Nievo.^[1]

Timeline

• About 1250 – A Venetian translation of the Pamphilus uses nievo.^[2]
• 15th century – Luigi Pulci uses nievo in the Morgante.^[5][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete) A grandson or nephew, the same as nipote.^[5][2][1]

Related words

• nipote
• Latin nepōs

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2585
9. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 698
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 296
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET