racimolo

Forms

racimolo m (plural racimoli)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian raccimolo, Old Italian rascimolo and Old Italian razemolo.^[2] Tuscan also has gracimolo, reshaped after grappolo.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Late Latin racīmus (“bunch of grapes”) with the diminutive suffix -olo.^{[5][6][7][1][8]} The Late Latin noun is a variant of Latin racēmus (“bunch, cluster”).^[5][1][7] It is recorded late, in 8th-century manuscript fragments of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great and in glosses from about 800.^[5][1] Nocentini treats it as Vulgar Latin *racīmus, and the reason for its long *i* is unclear.^[6][1]

The undiminished word lives on in French raisin “grape”, Occitan razim, Catalan rahim and Spanish racimo “bunch of grapes”.^[6][9] In northern Italy Meyer-Lübke records Ligurian razimu in Genoa.^[9] With a different suffix, Sicily and the Abruzzi have Sicilian racina, and Pegolotti used Old Italian racino about 1318.^[10] Italian racemo is a learned doublet, taken from Latin.^[1]

The origin of the classical word is probably a Mediterranean language, from which Ancient Greek ῥάξ (rháx, “grape”) and Albanian rrush may also come.^{[11][5][1][12]}

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi from about 1350, with the sense “small bunch of grapes”.^[5] There some people put fresh bunches, not pressed, into the wine cask at vintage time.^[2][13] Zingarelli dates the word from before 1320, and the GRADIT from before 1388.^[14][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word could mean a whole bunch of grapes: in the Fioretti a vineyard is so spoilt that hardly a few racimoli are left.^[2] Tommaseo notes that in his day racimoli were no longer whole bunches but the small clusters that make up a bunch.^[13] It was also said of the clusters of other plants, and figuratively of a small remnant: Machiavelli speaks of racimoli di fanterie, groups of infantry left behind.^[13][14]

The verb racimolare meant “to scrape together” before 1388, in Antonio Pucci, and “to glean the grapes left after the vintage” from 1607.^[5] In botany racimolo is a small raceme or part of one.^[15][7]

Timeline

• About 1350 – racimolo “small bunch of grapes” appears in the translation of Crescenzi.^[5]
• Before 1388 – Antonio Pucci uses racimolare “to scrape together”.^[5]
• 1607 – Giovanni Diodati uses racimolare “to glean grapes”.^[5]
• 1835 – racimolatura is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Each of the small clusters that make up a bunch of grapes: Ho mangiato solo un racimolo d'uva bianca.^[8][3][15]
2. A small bunch of grapes.^{[7][8][3][14]}
3. (botany) A small raceme or part of a raceme.^[15][7]
4. (figurative, uncommon) A small remnant or residue of something.^{[7][3][14][16]}

Word family

• racimolare
• racimolatura

Related words

• racemo
• grappolo
• Latin racēmus
• French raisin

Usage notes

Racimolo is also the first person singular present of racimolare.^[1][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 818
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3192
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org