rame

Forms

rame m (uncountable)^[1] Old Italian also had ramo, very often in early texts, and a feminine la rame.^[2][3] The Old Sicilian form is rami in the 14th century.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arāmen, a form recorded in a Paduan document of 950, which stands for Late Latin aerāmen (“bronze; object of bronze”).^[2][5][1] The Late Latin noun, first found in Commodian in the 3rd century, is derived from Latin aes (“copper, bronze”) with the suffix -āmen, and it assimilated its pretonic vowel.^[4] The assimilated form is recorded about 900.^[4][1] GRADIT describes the Italian form as the Latin word with its first syllable lost.^[6]

The same word is French airain (“bronze”), Occitan aram, Spanish alambre (“wire”), Portuguese arame (“brass; wire”), Romanian aramă (“copper”) and Romansh aram.^[5][7][4] In Romance the word took on the special sense “copper”.^[8]

The Latin noun was later replaced as the name of the metal by Latin cuprum, the “(bronze) of Cyprus”, recorded from Pliny.^[2] De Vaan traces it to Proto-Italic *ajos and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ei-os (“bronze”), with cognates in Germanic and Indo-Iranian.^[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest Italian form is ramo, in a poem of Giacomino Pugliese written before about 1250, which speaks of gold together with copper (auro co ramo).^[2] The form rame appears before 1292 in Bono Giamboni, for the reddish metal.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The LEI dates rame for the metal from 1306 in Jacopone da Todi, and records it in Old Venetian in the 14th century, in Rieti at the end of the 15th and in Old Neapolitan before 1489.^[4] In the plural the word came to mean copper pots and pans for the kitchen, in the Canti carnascialeschi of the 15th century.^[2][10]

By metonymy rame also named an engraving printed from a copper plate, first in Salvator Rosa before 1673; 19th-century purists disliked this use.^[2] The colour of the metal gave the sense “copper-red”, used as an invariable adjective (biondo rame).^[6][10]

Derivatives followed the trade in copper: ramaiolo, a ladle, is first recorded in 1287 as a small cooking pot, ramaio (as ramaro) a coppersmith in 1550, and ramare, to coat with copper, in 1889.^[2] Maltese borrowed the word as ram.^[1]

Timeline

• About 900 – The Latin form aramen is recorded.^[4]
• 950 – Vulgar Latin *arāmen appears in a document of Padua.^[2]
• Before c. 1250 – Giacomino Pugliese writes ramo for copper.^[2]
• 1287 – Ramaiuolo names a small cooking pot in Florence.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses rame.^[2]
• 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses rame.^[4]
• 15th century – The plural rami means copper kitchenware.^[2]
• Before 1673 – Salvator Rosa uses rame for a copperplate engraving.^[2]
• 1889 – Ramare, to coat with copper, is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. copper, the ductile reddish metal, once used for pots and coins and now above all for electric cables and wires: un tubo di rame.^[6][11][12]
2. (chemistry) The element with atomic number 29 and symbol Cu.^[6][13]
3. A copper-red colour; also as an invariable adjective: capelli rosso rame.^[6][11]
4. A copper vessel; in the plural, copper kitchen utensils.^[6][11]
5. A copperplate engraving.^[6][11]

Word family

• ramaio
• ramaiolo
• ramare
• ramato
• ramatura
• rameico
• rameoso
• ramifero
• ramina
• verderame

Related words

• eneo
• Latin aes
• French airain

Usage notes

Set phrases include età del rame (the Copper Age) and solfato di rame (copper sulphate).^[6]

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 o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 392
4. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 1089
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3201
11. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier