piombo

Forms

piombo m (plural piombi, diminutive piombino)^[1] Old Italian forms include plumbo, Old Italian plombo, Old Italian piommo, Old Italian piumbo and Old Italian pionbo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin plumbum (“lead”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin word continues in all the Romance languages: French plomb, Occitan plom, Catalan plom, Spanish plomo, Portuguese chumbo and Romanian plumb.^[5][7] DEI and Meyer-Lübke take the Spanish word from Catalan;^[8][7] Welsh borrowed it as plwm.^[8][7]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown, and DELI calls it pre-Indo-European.^[4][5] Nocentini sees a vague likeness with Ancient Greek μόλυβδος (mólubdos, “lead”), explained by a loan into both from an extinct Mediterranean language, as often with names of raw materials, the lead coming from the Iberian peninsula;^[5][8][9] DEI too calls it a Mediterranean relic.^[5][8][9] De Vaan follows Beekes, who rejects the Greek link and compares Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, the source of Old Irish lúaide (“lead”); since the Latin form cannot be inherited from the same source, it may be a loanword, perhaps the word that also reached Berber.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Patecchio's Splanamento, in Cremonese, from the early 13th century;^[2][4] DELI's first is a text of 1288–1290, for the metal.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used lead as the type of heaviness and of little worth beside gold and silver, as the metal of Saturn, and as the backing of a glass mirror; one of Cupid's arrows was of lead and caused hatred.^[2] A piombo was also the bob of a plumb line (before 1374), whence a piombo “perpendicular”, and piombino a sounding lead (1474).^[4][2]

Later senses are a lead seal (before 1498), lead sheets for coverings (before 1536), bullets (1567) and, in printing, type metal (1900).^[4] The verb piombare first meant to fall plumb, in Dante, then to fall suddenly (1475–1478, Poliziano) and to seal with lead (Venice, 1398).^[4] Figurative uses stress weight and colour: andare coi piedi di piombo “to tread carefully”, cappa di piombo “oppressive heat; a heavy burden”, cielo di piombo “a leaden sky”.^[11][12]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Patecchio uses the word in his Splanamento.^[2]
• 1288–1290 – A text names the metal.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses piombare “to fall plumb”.^[4]
• 1336 – Boccaccio uses piomboso “leaden”.^[4]
• Before 1374 – Paolo dell'Abbaco uses it for the plumb bob.^[4]
• Before 1498 – Vespasiano da Bisticci uses it for a lead seal.^[4]
• 1567 – The sense “bullet” is recorded.^[4]
• 1900 – It is used for printing type.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. lead, the soft, heavy grey metal, chemical element 82 (Pb).^{[6][13][11][1]}
2. (figurative) Something very heavy: questo zaino è piombo.^[6][13][11]
3. An object made of lead, especially a lead seal on a meter or package.^[6][13][14]
4. A lead weight on a fishing net or a diver's belt; the bob of a plumb line.^[6][14]
5. A lead sheet used for roofing.^[6][14]
6. Bullets, gunfire: morire sotto il piombo dei banditi.^[14][1]
7. (printing) Type metal; typesetting in metal.^[6][4]
8. (horse racing) A lead plate put in the saddle pockets to make up a jockey's weight.^[6]

Word family

• piombare
• piombino
• piombatura
• piomboso
• piombifero
• piombato
• impiombare
• impiombatura
• spiombare
• strapiombo
• strapiombare
• appiombare

Related words

• piombaggio
• piombico
• plumbeo
• Latin plumbum
• French plomb

Usage notes

Expressions include andare con i piedi di piombo, benzina senza piombo (unleaded petrol) and anni di piombo.^[6][13] DEI records an obsolete piombo “folding screen” (1890), adapted from Spanish biombo.^[8] The GDLI has a separate piombo “self-assurance” in the phrase a piombo, adapted from French aplomb.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2934
9. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 332
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 c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 523