rovere

Forms

rovere m or f (plural roveri)^[1] Old and literary forms include Old Italian rovero, Old Italian rovera, Old Italian rovore, Old Italian rovre and Old Italian rovro.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rōbur (“hard oak; strength”), from its oblique stem ⟨rōbor-⟩.^[4][5][6][1] Zingarelli and Gabrielli derive it from the ablative ⟨rōbore⟩.^[7][8] DELI notes that the Latin word gradually took ground from Latin quercus (“oak”), which survives in quercia.^[4] The same word is French rouvre, Occitan roure, Catalan roure, Spanish roble and Portuguese roble.^[5][9][10] Meyer-Lübke adds Engadine lüver and Logudorese and Campidanese arroli, and Gardenese rour (“acorn”).^[9] He also traces rubizzo (“hale, ruddy”) to Spanish roblizo (“hard, firm”), a derivative of the Spanish word.^[9]

The Latin noun comes from Proto-Italic *rouþos (“red substance”), from an older neuter s-stem Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ-os (“redness”), the same as Ancient Greek ἔρευθος (éreuthos, “redness”).^[11] The inner wood of the oak was apparently called “red”, which makes it a relative of Latin ruber (“red”).^[11][5][1] The long ⟨ō⟩ is not the Roman development, so de Vaan takes the word as borrowed from a neighbouring dialect.^[11] The sense “strength”, which gave robusto, comes from the hardness of the wood.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini, GRADIT and Zingarelli date the word to before 1320.^[5][6][7] DELI's first record is the Italian version of Pietro de' Crescenzi's treatise on agriculture, about 1350, naming a tree of the oak family: La quercia, il rovero, il cerro sono arbori grandi (“the oak, the durmast and the Turkey oak are large trees”).^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval Latin ligno de ruburo (“oak timber”) is recorded in 1299, and Italian rovere for the wood of the tree from 1391.^[4] The derivative rovereto (“oak wood, grove of oaks”) appears with the tree's first record in the Crescenzi translation.^[4] DELI also notes that the Latin derivative roborētum left many place names beside rōbur itself.^[4]

The gender has wavered: the word is masculine, also feminine, which DELI finds in C. Bartoli in 1550 and Tommaseo calls occasional.^[4][3] The botanical names attached to it have varied too, from Tommaseo's Quercus robur to the modern Quercus petraea.^[3][12][13] Today the word is common for the prized wood used in furniture, shipbuilding and wine casks.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1299 – Medieval Latin ligno de ruburo is recorded.^[4]
• Before 1320 – First record of rovere.^[5][6]
• About 1350 – The Crescenzi translation names the tree and has rovereto.^[4]
• 1391 – Rovere is recorded for oak timber.^[4]
• 1550 – C. Bartoli uses the word as a feminine.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The sessile oak or durmast oak (Quercus petraea), a tall quercia of Europe and Asia Minor with lobed leaves and acorns without stalks.^{[6][12][14][7]}
2. The hard, prized oak timber of this tree, used for furniture, building and casks: un armadio di rovere.^[6][15][14]

Word family

• rovereto
• roverella

Related words

• robusto
• quercia
• Latin rōbur
• French rouvre

Usage notes

The word is masculine or feminine.^[12][14][7] In heraldry rovere is a conventional figure of an oak with crossed branches.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 161
3. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org