rafano

Forms

rafano m (plural rafani)^[1] Old Italian forms include raffano, raphano, rafanu and ravano.^[2] The northern form with -v- for -f- is ravano, which also spread beyond the north.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin raphănus (“radish”), which is from Ancient Greek ῥάφανος (rháphanos).^[3][4][5][1] The Greek word named both the cabbage and the radish, and originally the turnip: it is formed from ῥάφυς (rháphus, “turnip”) with a suffix found in several plant names.^[3][1] Chantraine, quoted by DELI, sees in the shift of the turnip's name to the radish and the cabbage a sign that turnip growing declined.^[3] Latin had the word from Cato on.^[6]

The same Latin word gave Old French rafle (also rafene), Old Occitan rafe, Spanish rábano and Portuguese rabão, and it was borrowed into Basque errefau.^[7][4][6] DEI calls the word a side form of ravano: the voiceless consonant /f/ is kept as in the Old French and Old Occitan words, while the northern form voiced it to /v/.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1286–1290 (1287); DELI's first date is 1298, and Crescenzi's translation of about 1350 has it as a garden plant.^[2][3] The early senses are the plant of the cabbage family and its root, sharp in taste, used in cooking and in medicine.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used rafano for the plant and its pungent root;^[2][8] Crescenzi's translation says the plant is not sown but set out from a fresh crown.^[2][8] In 1592 M. Roseo complained that the names rafani and radici were often used one for the other.^[3][8]

In modern Italian the word names above all the horseradish (Armoracia rusticana), also called rafano rusticano, rafano tedesco or barbaforte, and only secondarily the radish.^[4][9][10] In botany Rafano with a capital letter is the genus Raphanus, to which the ravanello and the ramolaccio belong.^[5][11][9]

Timeline

• 1286–1290 – A Florentine document has the word (1287).^[2]
• 1298 – DELI's first dated record.^[3][5]
• c. 1350 – Crescenzi's translation describes how the plant is grown.^[3][8]
• 1592 – M. Roseo notes that rafani and radici are confused.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The aromatic root, mild or pungent, of some varieties of radish, used in cooking for sauces served with boiled meat.^[5]
2. The horseradish or a related plant of the cabbage family, an annual or biennial with a thick root and pinkish or yellowish flowers: rafano rusticano, horseradish.^[5][10][9]
3. (botany) Rafano: the genus Raphanus, which includes the radish (ravanello) and the wild radish.^[5][11][9]

Word family

• rafania
• rafanina
• rafanismo

Related words

• ravano
• ravanello
• rapa
• Latin raphanus

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3195
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier