rognone

Forms

rognone m (plural rognoni)^[1] Old Italian forms include rignone, regnoni and rogioni.^[2] The Tuscan variant arnione, recorded from the late 13th century, matches Romagnol argnón.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *roniōnem, a form with an assimilated vowel of *reniōnem, which is properly a diminutive of Latin rēn (“kidney”).^[4] DELI takes it into the standard language from the northern dialects.^[4] Nocentini, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli start from the unassimilated form directly.^[3][5][6] According to DELI, the new word may have been formed because the simple noun was a weak word that survived mainly in the language of physicians.^[4]

The same formation is French rognon, Occitan renhó and ronhó, Catalan ronyó, Spanish riñón and Portuguese rinhão.^[3][7] Its presence in every Romance language except Romanian and Dalmatian rules out a borrowing from French, according to DELI.^[4] Wiktionary, however, takes the Italian word as a loan from Old French rognon.^[1] DEI also considered a direct loan from Old Provençal or Old French, but noted that Sardinian runzone, the Spanish and the Portuguese forms point to a Latin form, which is missing from the glosses.^[8] Meyer-Lübke found the forms unclear: the French origin proposed by Gröber leads nowhere, and the first /o/ could come from distant assimilation.^[7]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain.^[1] One proposal derives it from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰrḗn (“an inner part of the body”), cognate with Ancient Greek φρήν (phrḗn, “midriff, mind”), another from Proto-Indo-European *srḗn (“hip, loins”), cognate with Lithuanian strėnos (“loins”); both involve uncertain sound changes.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Pisan statute of 1327, where the word means the kidney of animals and of beasts for slaughter.^[2] DELI dates the sense “kidney of a slaughtered animal” to the 14th century, in a treatise on farriery and the Carrara herbal.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word could also mean the flank and the intestine.^[2] Nocentini notes that when the descendants of Latin rēn came back through medical vocabulary (rene), Italian rognone and French rognon were narrowed to the kidneys of animals.^[3]

The word is found in almost all the dialects except those of central and northern Tuscany.^[8] Tommaseo noted that Florence said arnioni where Venice said rognoni, and recorded a scholar from Massa and Carrara who praised learned foreigners as men con tanto di rognoni (“with kidneys that big”), a usage he did not recommend.^[9][4] The dish of kidneys, rognonata, is recorded from 1640.^[4] In mountaineering the word names a rounded rock that rises out of a glacier.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1327 – Rognone “kidney of an animal” appears in a Pisan statute.^[2]
• 1480 – GRADIT's date of first record.^[5]
• 1640 – Oudin records rognonata, a dish of kidneys.^[4]
• 1804 – D'Alberti defines rognonata as a butchers' term for the part that holds the kidney.^[4]
• 1872 – Tommaseo notes con tanto di rognoni as a familiar phrase from Massa and Carrara.^[4][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The kidney of a slaughtered animal.^[5][6][10]
2. (cooking) A dish made with kidneys: rognone trifolato.^[5][11][12]
3. (mountaineering) A rounded outcrop of rock rising out of a glacier.^[5][6][10]

Word family

• rognonata
• rognoncino

Related words

• rene
• French rognon
• Latin ren

Usage notes

The word is used for animals; the human organ is rene.^[3][6] The diminutive rognoncino names the kidneys of small animals, such as kid.^[11][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
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 d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3277
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)