ossame

Forms

ossame m (plural ossami)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian osso + -ame, with the suffix of collective nouns.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Zingarelli derives it from the plural ossa.^[7] Wiktionary and Körting instead set up a collective Vulgar Latin *ossāmen, from Latin os (“bone”).^[1][8]

Meyer-Lübke lists it among the collective derivatives of Latin ossum (“bone”), with Romanian osăminte, French ossements, Old Occitan osamenta, Catalan ossam, Spanish osamenta and Portuguese ossamenta.^[9] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃o/est- (“bone”), the source of Ancient Greek ὀστέον (ostéon).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), of the war dead whose ossame ancor s'accoglie / a Ceperan (“whose bones are still gathered at Ceprano”).^{[11][12][6][13]}

Semantic evolution

The word stayed literary.^[2][3] Ariosto writes of l'insepulto ossame of Trasimene, the unburied bones of the battle, and Pulci of a gruesome jumble of heads, feet e d'altro ossame at Roncesvalles.^[6][13] Later writers use it of skeletons in ossuaries, in torture chambers and in fossil beds.^[6][14]

Devoto–Oli notes that the word suggests desolation more than horror, and Treccani that in common speech it is mostly contemptuous.^[3][14] Tommaseo records ossami as an architects' word for the corners and pillars that carry the beams and vaults of a building, and Zingarelli and Gabrielli give a nautical sense, the frames of a ship.^[13][7][15]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses ossame in the Inferno.^[11]
• 1861 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the architects' plural ossami.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A heap or mass of bones or skeletons, human or animal.^{[2][3][4][7][14][1]}
2. (nautical) The frames of a ship; corbame.^[7][15]

Related words

• osso
• ossatura
• Latin os

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
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. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli