omero

Forms

omero m (plural omeri)^[1] Old and regional forms include Old Italian òmaro, Old Italian umero and Old Italian uòmero.^[2] In Tuscany the word is also émero.^[3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin (h)umerus (“shoulder; upper arm”).^[4][5][2] DELI describes the word as the popularly adapted form, beside the Latinising umero.^[4] The spelling with ⟨h⟩ is frequent in Latin manuscripts.^[6]

The Latin word lives on as a popular word in Romanian umăr, Spanish hombro and Corsican vómaru, but in most of Italy it was overwhelmed by spalla.^[7][8][5]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *omeso- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂om-es- (“shoulder”); the same word is Sanskrit अंस (áṃsa, “shoulder”), Ancient Greek ὦμος (ômos, “shoulder”) and Gothic 𐌰𐌼𐍃 (ams).^[9][7][1] Wiktionary gives the PIE word as *h₃émsos.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Dante's Commedia, 1300–1313, in the literary sense “shoulder”.^[4] In the Inferno Virgil asks Geryon to che ne conceda i suoi omeri forti (“grant us his strong shoulders”).^[10][11][12]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian omero was a literary word for the shoulder, used by Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, mostly in the plural.^[12][13] Domenico Cavalca, who died in 1342, used it for the bone of the upper arm: l'omero mio dalla sua giuntura caggia (“let my arm-bone fall from its joint”).^[4][2] Boccaccio also extended it to the ridge of a mountain, in i fronzuti omeri d'Appennino (“the leafy shoulders of the Apennines”).^[14][5]

The literary sense “shoulder” lasted into the 19th and 20th centuries, in Monti, Manzoni and Pascoli.^[13] Today the main sense is anatomical: the humerus, the long bone from the shoulder to the elbow; zoology also uses the word for parts of the wing cases of beetles.^[13][10]

The adjective omerale “of the humerus” appears before 1673, and as a noun umerale, later omerale, names the humeral veil worn on the shoulders by the Catholic celebrant, from Latin amictus humerālis.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses omero “shoulder” in the Commedia.^[4]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for the bone of the upper arm.^[4]
• Before 1673 – The adjective omerale is recorded.^[4]
• 1726–1727 – The noun umerale, the humeral veil, is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) humerus, the long bone of the upper arm, from the shoulder to the elbow: Si è fratturato l'omero cadendo dalla bicicletta.^{[10][15][16][11]}
2. (literary, usually in the plural) shoulder.^{[10][15][16][17]}
3. (archaic) The ridge or upper part of a mountain.^[15][11][14]

Word family

• omerale

Related words

• spalla
• Latin umerus

Usage notes

Omero “shoulder; humerus” is stressed on the first syllable, /ˈɔ.me.ro/; the name Omero “Homer”, from Latin Homerus, is stressed on the second, /oˈmɛ.ro/.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 930
3. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 709
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2649
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana