rivolo

Forms

rivolo m (plural rivoli)^[1] Old forms include rivulo and ruvulo.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin rīvulus (“small stream”), a diminutive of rīvus (“brook”), the source of rivo.^[3][4][5][1] Zingarelli and the GDLI call it a learned word.^[6][2] The same Latin word gave the Friulian word for a brook.^[7]

Latin rīvus, “small stream, brook, channel”, goes back to Proto-Italic *rīwo- (“stream”), and de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₃riH-uo- (“whirling”).^[8] Etymonline traces it to a root Proto-Indo-European *rei- (“to run, flow”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini, GRADIT and Zingarelli date the word to before 1320.^[3][4][6] DEI puts it in the 13th century.^[10] DELI's first record is the Italian translation of Crescenzi, about 1350, where water is led to the fields per rivoli o per solchi ordinati, “by brooks or by ordered furrows”.^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the word named a small stream and each branch running off a river or a spring: Fazio degli Uberti writes that the snows on the coldest mountains melt and giuso al pian fan rivoli (“make brooks down on the plain”).^[2] The figurative use for blood is already in Guido delle Colonne: molti rivoli di sangue scorsero (“many streams of blood flowed”).^[12]

Today the word is used above all for a thin flow of a liquid other than water, such as blood, sweat, tears or oil, and by hyperbole for a large amount of anything.^[13][14][15] Tommaseo–Bellini found the word rare even in writing in the 19th century.^[12] The diminutive rivoletto passed into English as rivulet in the 1580s.^[10][9]

Timeline

• Before 1320 – First record of rivolo.^[3][4][6]
• About 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses rivoli for irrigation channels.^[11][2]
• 1580s – English rivulet is recorded, probably from rivoletto.^[9][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small stream (rivo), a brook or rivulet: Un rivolo scendeva tra le rocce.^{[4][15][5][16]}
2. (by extension) A thin trickle of a liquid other than water, such as blood or sweat: Un rivolo d’olio colava dalla bottiglia.^{[4][15][13][14]}
3. (hyperbolic) A large quantity: Rivoli di denaro finivano nelle sue tasche.^[14]

Word family

• rivoletto

Related words

• rivo
• rio
• Latin rīvus
• English rivulet

Usage notes

An obsolete homograph rivolo “theft”, recorded before 1388, is a compound of ri- with the verb involare; it was used in the phrase di rivolo, “secretly, by stealth”, as in Antonio Pucci, and andare di rivolo, “to be stolen”.^[4][2][12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 16, 1077
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3270
11. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana