nube

Forms

nube f (plural nubi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nūbēs (“cloud”).^[2][3][4][1] DEI regards it as a learned word: popular continuations of the Latin noun are limited to Sardinian nue, Old Spanish and Old French nue, and Portuguese nuvem.^[5][6] Nocentini compares Spanish nube, and derives French nue from a Vulgar Latin *nūba.^[3] Old Italian also had the forms Old Italian nuve and nubbe.^[7]

The Latin noun is related to obnūbō (“to veil, cover”), which suggests that the stem nūb- meant “cover”: clouds are often named as a covering.^[8] De Vaan sets up a Proto-Indo-European root *(s)newdʰ- (“to cover”), whose only direct cognate is Welsh nudd (“haze”), with Avestan and Baluchi words for “cloud”.^[8][1] DELI and the GDLI also speak of a root meaning “to cover”, and de Vaan thinks a link with nūbō (“to marry”) possible.^[2][9][8] Nocentini puts it in the same word family as Latin nebula (“mist”) (whence nebbia), while Wiktionary's Latin entry denies the connection.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma of 1252–1258, for the mass of water vapour high in the sky that falls as rain.^[7] DELI and GRADIT date the word from Dante, who uses it both for a cloud and for whatever darkens or obscures.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word was extended to the sky itself, to a cloud of smoke or dust, and to the dust raised by riders; figuratively it stood for a crowd or great number, for the dimming of sight, for an obstacle to knowledge and for empty appearance.^[7] Petrarch's line E 'l ciel qual è, se nulla nube il vela shows the literary use.^[10][11]

In everyday speech nube has largely given way to nuvola, and it stays the word of science and literature.^[11][12] Science gave it many technical senses: the nube ardente of volcanoes, cosmic and stellar clouds, the electron cloud of physics, and the nube radioattiva of a nuclear explosion.^[13][14] Poets from Chiabrera to Alfieri made compounds in imitation of Greek, such as nubifendente “cloud-cleaving”, which have since disappeared.^[5] The compound nubifragio “cloudburst”, recorded from 1883, was modelled on naufragio.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1252–1258 – First record, in the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma.^[7]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses nube in the Purgatorio.^[4][9]
• 1883 – Nubifragio “cloudburst” is recorded.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cloud: a visible mass of tiny water droplets or ice crystals in the upper air: Il cielo si coprì di nubi grigie.^{[4][15][16][1]}
2. A cloud of something else, such as smoke, dust, gas or insects: una nube di cenere, nube tossica.^[4][15][16]
3. (figurative) Something that clouds the mind or hides the truth: una nube di sospetti.^[4][17]
4. (figurative) A passing trouble or a shadow of sadness: una nube passeggera (a passing cloud).^[4][16][17]
5. (astronomy, physics) A cloud of matter or particles, as in nube cosmica and nube elettronica (electron cloud).^[15][13]
6. (statistics) A scatter of points on a graph.^[4]

Word family

• nubifragio

Related words

• nuvola
• nubile
• Latin nūbēs
• Spanish nube
• French nue

Usage notes

Nube is the scientific and literary word; in ordinary speech nuvola is more usual.^[11][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2607
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 620
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 703
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli