polve

Forms

polve f (plural polvi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian porve, Old Italian pulve and Old Italian pulvi.^[2] In the old language the plural could also be polve.^[3] The Tarantino form is porva.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pulvis (“dust”), continuing the nominative, whereas polvere continues the accusative pulverem: the two are doublets.^{[1][5][6][7][3]}

Most Romance languages continue the stem of the oblique cases, as the doublet does: Romanian pulbere, French poudre and Spanish pólvora.^[8] A remade *pulvus gave Catalan pols and Spanish polvo.^[8][9]

The origin of Latin pulvis is uncertain.^[10] Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny connect it with Proto-Indo-European *pelH-u- (“chaff”), seen in palea (“chaff”), but Schrijver finds the link between “dust” and “chaff” weak; de Vaan thinks it still possible through a sense “fine dust”.^[10] The OLD compares pollen (“fine flour”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma of 1252–1258, where the word means the fine dry earth that the wind raises and that settles everywhere.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian polve was the ordinary word beside polvere: it meant dust, the soil, the remains of a body, and any matter ground into fine particles.^[2] The phrase scuotere la polve dai piedi, “to shake the dust off one's feet”, meant to leave in disdain a place that had not been welcoming.^[2]

Dante uses it for the human body (l'alma dentro a vostra polve, “the soul within your dust”), and Petrarch for the ashes of the dead (in poca polve, “into a little dust”).^[12][5] From the 16th century on it is mostly a poetic word: Ariosto, Chiabrera and later Monti, Foscolo, Leopardi and Carducci use it.^[3][7][5] Tommaseo records far polve d'uno “to destroy someone”, and DEI notes a use for face powder in Fagiuoli.^[12][4]

Timeline

• 1252–1258 – First record, in the Roman Storie de Troia e de Roma.^[2]
• Before 1306 – GRADIT's date for the word.^[5]
• Early 14th century – Dante uses polve of the human body.^[12][6]
• 14th century – Petrarch uses it for the ashes of the dead.^[12][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary, poetic) Dust.^[5][6][7][1]
2. (literary, figurative) Mortal remains, ashes.^[5][6][7][1]
3. (literary, figurative) The human body.^[5][7][1]

Related words

• polvere
• Latin pulvis

Usage notes

Polve is a poetic form; the everyday word is polvere.^[7][12][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 808
4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3007
5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier