orno

Forms

orno m (plural orni)^[1] The older texts also have Old Italian ornio.^[2][3] DEI lists the dialect forms ornien in Lombardy, ornèr and ornàro in Emilia, and uorno in the Neapolitan area.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ornus (“manna ash”).^{[5][6][7][8][1]} Nocentini counts it among the Latin words continued only in Italo-Romance: Lombard ùren, Friulian vuarn, and orne in Abruzzo and Naples, while French orne is learned.^[6] Meyer-Lübke adds Dalmatian guarno and vorne, and Romanian urm, crossed with Latin ulmus (“elm”).^[9]

The Latin noun goes back to an older *osinos.^[6][10][3] Nocentini derives it from an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *os- (“ash tree”), which also gave Lithuanian úosis, Old High German ask, German Esche and English ash.^[6] De Vaan sets up Proto-Italic *osVno- from Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃s-, with Welsh onnen and Old Norse askr among the cognates, and explains the suffix as the one found in other tree names, such as fraxinus.^[11][1] DELI is more cautious: it accepts the Indo-European family only if the comparisons hold, against a view that places the isolated Latin type in an older pre-Indo-European and Semitic setting.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Lancia's vernacular Aeneid of 1316, where the word is feminine after the Latin noun: L'antica orno nasconde il capo tra' nuvoli (“the ancient ash hides its head among the clouds”).^[2][3] DELI's first date is Arrigo Simintendi's Ovid, before 1333, where ivy, vines e gli orni (“and the ash trees”) gather in one place.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed mostly literary, from Ariosto's or faggio, or orno to Tasso's Aminta, where l'orno per l'orno (“the ash for the ash”) burns with love.^[3][12] The Florentine Ricettario notes that a kind of manna grows on ash trees and orni.^[3][12] Tommaseo also records it for the timber, which lasts well under water.^[12] Outside the dialects the word is of literary tradition, according to DEI.^[4]

In everyday Tuscan the tree was called by the diminutives ornello and orniello: Pietro Cattaneo wrote in 1554 that the Tuscans call the orno orniello, and Daniello Bartoli has ornello in 1681.^[5] Modern dictionaries treat orno as another name for this tree.^[7][13][14]

Timeline

• 1316 – Lancia's vernacular Aeneid has the first record, in the feminine.^[2]
• Before 1333 – Arrigo Simintendi uses the word in his Ovid.^[5]
• 1554 – Pietro Cattaneo records Tuscan orniello.^[5]
• 1681 – Daniello Bartoli uses ornello.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The manna ash (Fraxinus ornus), a kind of ash tree (frassino) more often called ornello or orniello.^{[7][13][15][8][14][1]}
2. (rare) Its timber.^[12]

Word family

• ornello
• orniello

Related words

• frassino
• Latin ornus

Usage notes

Orno is also the first person singular present of ornare (io orno, “I adorn”).^[1][14][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2680
5. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli