pomo

Forms

pomo m (plural pomi or (Old Italian) pome, diminutive pomèllo or (less common) pométto)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pōmum (“fruit”).^[2][3][4][1] Latin had pōmus, feminine, for the fruit tree beside the neuter for the fruit; the Romance languages merged the two, except Romanian, which keeps Romanian pom (“fruit tree”) beside poamă (“fruit”), and in Old Italian the word could still mean the tree.^[3] The word is pan-Romance: French pomme, Occitan pom, Catalan poma and Portuguese pomo all mean “apple”, while Spanish pomo (“fruit”) came in by a learned route.^[3][5] In the south of Italy the Latin word lives on as Sicilian pumu from Sicily to southern Lucania.^[6]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[2][7] De Vaan considers a Proto-Italic *po-emo- “taken off, picked”, from the root of Latin emō (“to take”) with the prefix po-;^[8][1][3] Wiktionary gives Proto-Italic *poomos and Proto-Indo-European *h₂po-h₁ém-os (“taken off”).^[8][1][3] Devoto found no reliable connections,^[9] and DEI thought the word probably a relic of a substrate.^[6]

The phrase pomo d'Adamo continues pomum Adami of Medieval Latin, a mistranslation of a medieval Hebrew phrase meaning “apple of the man”.^[2][10][6] The phrase pomo della discordia names the golden apple of Greek myth that Paris awarded to Venus.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are pome in Giordano's Lenten sermons (1305–1306) and pomo in Iacopone da Todi (before 1306), with the sense “apple, and any fruit in general”.^[2] GRADIT, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the word to the 12th century, DEI to the 13th.^{[4][3][11][6]}

Semantic evolution

From the fruit the word passed early to round objects: Dante (before 1321) uses pome for a thing shaped like an apple, and pomo in this sense appears in Aretino (1534).^[2] The knob of a sword hilt is called pomo in Italian, as in Old French, Old Occitan, Spanish and Portuguese.^[5] Old plurals were le pome, le poma and le pomora.^[11][7][12] Boccaccio already uses i pomi for a woman's breasts.^[4]

Many plant names were formed with it: pomi d'oro for tomatoes (Mattioli, 1544), which became pomodoro, pomo d'Adamo for a kind of citrus (1544), and pomo di terra “potato”.^[2][6][7] Pomo d'Adamo for the prominence of the larynx is recorded from 1561 (Citolini).^[6] Pomata “ointment” (1518–1525) is named after the apples that went into it.^[2] Today the sense “apple” is regional, in the north and centre, and the general sense “fruit” literary.^[11][13]

Timeline

• 12th century – First record according to GRADIT and Nocentini.^[4][3]
• 1305–1306 – Pome “fruit” in Giordano's sermons.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses pomo.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses pome for an apple-shaped object.^[2]
• 1518–1525 – Pomata appears in Firenzuola.^[2]
• 1534 – Aretino uses pomo for a round ornament.^[2]
• 1544 – Mattioli names the tomato pomi d'oro.^[2]
• 1561 – Pomo d'Adamo for the larynx, in Citolini.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, northern and central) An apple.^[11][7][4]
2. (literary) Any fruit of a tree, especially a round one like an apple.^[11][7][12]
3. (literary, archaic) A fruit tree, especially the apple tree (melo).^[4][12][10]
4. (botany) A pome, the false fruit of apples, pears and other Rosaceae, whose flesh grows from the swollen receptacle.^[4][11][12]
5. A round knob at the end of an object, as a handle or an ornament; the knob of a door or drawer: Girò il pomo d'ottone e la porta si aprì.^[4][11][10]
6. The pommel of a sword or other bladed weapon.^[4][10]
7. (history) The orb topped by a small cross, a symbol of royal or imperial power.^[4][12][10]
8. (nautical) The formaggetta, the cap at the top of a mast.^[4][10][7]
9. (literary, usually plural) A woman's breast.^[4][10][12]
10. (anatomy) Pomo d'Adamo: the Adam's apple.^[7][14][12]

Word family

• pomata
• pomello
• pomellato
• pometo
• pomaio
• pomario
• pomodoro
• pomolo
• pomifero
• pomologia
• pomicoltura
• pomicoltore

Related words

• mela
• Latin pomum
• French pomme

Usage notes

Pomo della discordia (a bone of contention) and pomo d'Adamo are the common fixed phrases; many plant names are formed with pomo, such as pomo cotogno (quince) and pomo granato (pomegranate).^[4][11][7] Pomo is also the name of a Native American people of central-western California, recorded in Italian from 1941.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3010
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 337
10. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli