pimpinella

Forms

pimpinella f (plural pimpinelle)^[1] An old form is Old Italian pempinella.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin pipinella, recorded in an antidotary of the 7th–8th century, beside a form pimpinella.^[3][4][5] DELI, Nocentini and Treccani connect it, with some doubt, with Latin pepo (“melon”), so that the name would be a diminutive.^[3][6][7] Most dictionaries think of the fruits, which recall small melons;^[3][4][6] Nocentini prefers the leaves, which give a salad a faint taste of melon, and compares the synonym meloncello.^[3][4][6] Devoto adds an assimilation of the vowels and a crossing with pampino.^[8]

The ⟨r⟩ of French pimprenelle, earlier piprenelle in the 12th century, comes from a crossing with Latin piper (“pepper”), according to DEI; Spanish pimpinela is a learned form.^[9][6] Wiktionary instead derives the word through Catalan pampinella from Latin bipennula, a diminutive of penna (“feather”) with bis (“twice”).^[1] Etymonline gives both views for the English name pimpernel: a pepper-like plant, or a corruption of a word for “two-winged”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to the first half of the 13th century, and DEI cites Rogerio of Parma's surgery of the 13th century.^[4][9] DELI's first record is the 14th-century Zibaldone Andreini, for the salad burnet; the medical texts recommend its juice and a confection of it.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the name went to the salad burnet, a plant of the rose family also called salvastrella and sorbastrella, which was eaten in salads and used against bleeding.^[9][6][11] Sannazaro's Arcadia speaks of a garland of green pimpinella, and Pascoli of eating radicchio and pimpinella.^[7]

When Linnaeus named the umbellifer genus Pimpinella in 1737, with anise as Pimpinella anisum, the word passed into botany for this genus;^[9][7] DEI records the Italian name for it from 1828.^[9][7] Today the dictionaries give both: the burnet as a popular name, the genus in botany.^[4][12][13]

Timeline

• 7th–8th century – Medieval Latin pipinella appears in an antidotary.^[3]
• First half of the 13th century – First Italian record.^[4]
• 14th century – The Zibaldone Andreini uses pimpinella.^[3][11]
• 1737 – Linnaeus names Pimpinella anisum.^[9]
• 1828 – The name is recorded for the umbellifer.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A popular name of several plants of the rose family, especially the salad burnet (salvastrella).^[4][12][13]
2. (botany) A plant of the genus Pimpinella of the umbellifers, which includes anice.^[4][12][7]
3. (botany) With a capital, the genus itself.^[4][12]

Word family

• pimpinellina

Related words

• salvastrella
• popone
• French pimprenelle
• English pimpernel

Usage notes

Wiktionary gives the sense “pimpernel” (genus Lysimachia), which the Italian dictionaries do not.^[1][4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 486
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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)
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2924
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli