nuora

Forms

nuora f (plural nuore)^[1] Old Italian forms include nore, nuore and nura.^[2] A popular and regional form is nora.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nora, the popular form that replaced Latin nurus (“daughter-in-law”).^[6][7][8][1] Latin already had a by-form nura that followed the feminine a-declension, recorded in the Appendix Probi.^[7][1] The DÉRom reconstructs a feminine u-stem /ˈnʊr-u/ for Proto-Romance, with the /a/ ending as a later remodelling.^[9]

The vowel /o/ in place of /u/ is not regular: Meyer-Lübke traced it to socrus (“mother-in-law”), Paris to soror (“sister”), and the REW also names a third model.^[10] DEI and Devoto accept the influence of the other kinship words, socra and of the word for “sister”, which also drew the word into the a-declension.^[11][12] Körting explains the diphthong /wɔ/ through the same influence.^[13]

The same word is Old French nuere, Occitan nora, Catalan nora, Spanish nuera, Portuguese nora and Romanian noră.^[7][10] Sardinian nura continues that variant, and only Aromanian noru keeps the u-declension.^[7][10] Modern French uses belle-fille instead.^[7]

nurus goes back through Proto-Italic *snuso- to Proto-Indo-European *snusós (“daughter-in-law”).^[14][1] It was moved from the o-stems to the u-stems by the influence of the word for “mother-in-law”.^[14][1] Related words are Sanskrit स्नुषा (snuṣā́), Ancient Greek νυός (nuós), Old English snoru, Old High German snur and Proto-Slavic *snъxà.^[14][7][1] De Vaan suggests that the noun may come from the root Proto-Indo-European *sneu- (“to drip, nurse”), from which Latin nūtrīx (“wet nurse”) is often derived.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Latin documents of the abbey of Cava already show nore at Amalfi in 856 and nuora in 939.^[11] The first Italian record is a Sienese document of 1289, where the word means “the son's wife”, the sense it has kept.^[2] DELI dates the form nora to Iacopone da Todi, who died in 1306.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for a son's wife in relation to his parents, and by extension for a young woman.^[2] Iacopone complains of a cunning, sharp-tongued nora whose shouting all the neighbours hear, and Bartolomeo da S. Concordio wrote that “it is another evil between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, that the one hates the other” (È un altro male tra suocera e nuora, che l’una odia l’altra).^[15] That proverbial quarrel shaped the phrases: essere come suocera e nuora, to be always quarrelling, and the old saying suocera e nuora, tempesta e gragnuola, “mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, storm and hail”.^[4][3]

An old proverb said io lo dico a te, figliuola, perché m'intenda la mia nuora, “I say it to you, daughter, so that my daughter-in-law understands”.^[2][16] Its modern form, dire a nuora perché suocera intenda, means to speak to one person so that another hears and takes the hint.^[4][5] In Tuscany suocera e nuora is also a cruet of two joined bottles for oil and vinegar whose spouts point in opposite directions, and a popular name of the pansy, perhaps for its contrasting colours.^[4][3][15]

In literary use the word has also meant a young bride or a bride-to-be.^[3][5] The word is found in all the dialects, but in Friuli and the Grisons a Germanic word has taken its place, in eastern Lombardy a word for “bride”, and in Umbria it competes with figliastra; the old form nura survives in Piedmont and Istria.^[11]

Timeline

• 856 – Nore is recorded at Amalfi in the Latin documents of Cava.^[11]
• 939 – Nuora appears in a Cava document.^[11]
• 1289 – A Sienese document has the first Italian record.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses the form nora.^[6]
• Before 1342 – Cavalca uses nora.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. daughter-in-law: a son's wife, in relation to his parents: La nuora di Marta lavora in ospedale.^[8][3][1]
2. (literary) A young bride or a bride-to-be.^[8][3][5]
3. (by extension) A girl or young woman.^[8][2]

Related words

• suocera
• genero
• Latin nurus

Usage notes

Nuora pairs with suocera (mother-in-law), suocero and genero (son-in-law).^[5] The fixed phrases dire a nuora perché suocera intenda and essere come suocera e nuora are still common.^[8][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2611
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 299
13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
14. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET