pruno

Forms

pruno m (plural pruni)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prūnus (“plum tree”).^[1][2][3][4] DELI, GRADIT and Zingarelli give the etymon as prūnum.^[5][6][7] The same word is Romanian prun (“plum tree”), Spanish pruno and Spanish bruno (“wild plum”).^[8][4] The Ladin of Val Gardena has brum (“blue”), and French nerprun (“buckthorn”) is a compound meaning “black plum tree”.^[8]

Latin had the feminine noun for the tree and a neuter one for the fruit.^[4][9] Nocentini and the OLD take them from Ancient Greek προῦμνον (proûmnon, “plum”) and its pair for the tree, probably from a language of Asia Minor like most names of fruit trees.^[4][9][1] DELI and Zingarelli call the word pre-Indo-European, and Devoto a Mediterranean word.^[5][7][10] Germanic took the fruit name: Old High German pfrūma (modern German Pflaume) and Old English plūme, whence plum.^[4]

The Latin word named both the cultivated and the wild plum.^[4] In Italian the inherited word kept the wild, thorny species and became a synonym of spino, while the cultivated tree is prugno, from prugna.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, for the blackthorn;^[5] Barberino, in 1314, uses it for the thorn of that shrub.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for any thorny shrub of uncultivated land.^[11][5] In the Commedia Dante plucks a twig from un gran pruno.^[12][11] Boccaccio wrote that no field was ever so well tilled that no nettle, thistle or pruno grew among the good plants.^[11]

The sense “plum tree” is recorded from Mattioli in 1544, and DEI treats it separately.^[13] Luna noted that Florentines and Venetians said pruno for the susino.^[14] Botanists use the word for any species of the genus Prunus, and, capitalised, for the genus itself.^[6][15] Figurative phrases include essere un pruno in un occhio, to be a constant annoyance, and stare sui pruni, to be ill at ease.^[2][16]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses pruno for the blackthorn.^[5]
• 1314 – Barberino uses it for the thorn.^[5]
• Before 1333 – Pruneto “place full of thornbushes” in Simintendi.^[5]
• 1544 – Mattioli uses pruno for the plum tree.^[13]
• 1618 – Prunaio in Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.^[5]
• 1729 – Pruno gazzerino in Micheli.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thorny shrub growing wild on uncultivated land, such as the bramble or the hawthorn (rovo, biancospino): Il sentiero spariva tra i pruni.^{[6][17][15][16]}
2. By extension, a thorn.^{[6][17][7][16]}
3. Pruno selvatico: the blackthorn, Prunus spinosa; the same as prugnolo.^[17][7][12]
4. (regional, Tuscany) The plum tree; the same as susino or prugno.^{[17][15][2][16]}
5. (botany) A plant of the genus Prunus, which includes the cherry, apricot, peach and plum; with a capital, the genus itself.^[6][15][2]

Word family

• pruneto
• prunaio
• prunaia
• pruname
• prunata
• prunoso
• imprunare
• sprunare

Related words

• prugno
• prugna
• prugnolo
• susino
• Latin prunus
• English plum

Usage notes

Proverbial phrases include ogni prun fa siepe, every little thing has its use.^[2] Pruno gazzerino is another name of the agazzino.^[7][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3125
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 14, 832
15. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ 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