sambuco

sambuco¹ elder tree

Pronunciation

• /samˈbu.ko/^[1]

Forms

sambuco m (plural sambuchi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian sanbucho, Old Italian sambugo and Old Italian samuci.^[2] An old form is zambuco.^[3]

Etymology

The word for the elder tree is inherited from Latin sambūcus, whose origin is uncertain.^[4][5][6] Latin also had the variant sabūcus, which the Romance languages continue more widely than the form with ⟨-mb-⟩.^[7][8] DÉRom reconstructs Proto-Romance */saˈbuk-u/, with the variants */saˈbukk-u/ and */samˈbuk-u/.^[7]

The type with ⟨-mb-⟩ is Sardinian samucu and Engadine sambüi.^[5][8] The type without it is Romanian soc, Catalan sauc and Portuguese sabugo, and French sureau is a derivative of it.^[8] In Italy that type prevails at the edges: in Friuli, South Tyrol, Trentino, around Verona and Brescia, and in Apulia, Basilicata, northern Calabria and Sicily.^[9]

DEI considers the Latin word non-Indo-European and perhaps Mediterranean, from a word for “water”, for a shrub that grows by water, and compares Dacian ⟨seba⟩ “elder”; it marks this with a question mark.^[9] Wiktionary's Latin entry links the Latin word with sambūca, a stringed instrument of Asiatic origin, saying that pipes were made of elder wood.^[1] The GDLI regards that link as probably a folk etymology.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Tuscan medical recipes of the 13th century, from western Tuscany; the plant's fruits were used in medicine.^[2] DELI's first date is before 1313, in Cecco Angiolieri.^[4] Sambuco is found in Tuscan place names from 1074.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian had the adjectives sambuchino and sambucato, both from the 14th century, and Boccaccio's frittellette sambucate were fritters made with elderflowers.^[9][3] The tree's soft pith was proverbial: Crescenzi names it among the plants full of marrow.^[11] The hollowed stems made shepherds' pipes, zufoli di sambuco.^[12]

The anise liqueur sambuca, first recorded in 1895, was named after the plant;^[4][5] Nocentini says it is flavoured with elderberries, and DELI connects it with Campania and Lazio.^[4][5] Modern botany uses sambuco for the genus and for its species, sambuco nero and sambuco di montagna among them.^[6][13]

Timeline

• 1074 – Sambuco is recorded in a Tuscan place name.^[9]
• 13th century – Tuscan medical recipes have the first record.^[2]
• Before 1313 – Cecco Angiolieri uses the word.^[4]
• 14th century – Sambuchino and sambucato are recorded.^[9]
• 1895 – The liqueur sambuca is recorded.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The elder (Sambucus nigra): a shrub or small tree with pithy stems, white scented flowers in flat clusters and small black berries used for liqueurs and herbal remedies.^{[6][14][13][1]}
2. Any plant of the genus Sambucus; with a capital, the genus itself.^[6][14][15]

Word family

• sambuca
• sambuchello
• sambucato

sambuco² sambuq, Arabian boat

Pronunciation

• /samˈbu.ko/^[1]

Forms

sambuco m (plural sambuchi)^[1] Older forms are zambuco and zambucco.^[16][17]

Etymology

The word for the Arabian boat is borrowed from Portuguese sambuco, from Arabic سنبوق (sanbūq).^[4][6][15] GRADIT dates the Portuguese word to 1498, in the variant ⟨zamuco⟩.^[6] Devoto–Oli, Treccani and Wiktionary derive the Italian word directly from Arabic.^[14][13][1]

Nocentini traces the Arabic word to Somali.^[5] Zingarelli and the GDLI instead think it may go back to an Indian word, Zingarelli with a question about an Indian ⟨sambu⟩, ⟨zambu⟩.^[17][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a report by the Venetian Leonardo Ca' Masser, about 1497–1505, of “40 Moorish ships and about a hundred sambuchi”.^[4] In 1563 Ramusio describes the Moors of the Zanzibar coast sailing in ships and zambuchi “sewn with coir without being nailed”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to the travel literature of the 16th and 17th centuries: Ludovico de Varthema calls the sambuchi flat-bottomed, and Pietro della Valle compares the sambùc to a Neapolitan feluca.^[16] In the 19th and 20th centuries it was used of the boats of the Red Sea and the coasts of East Africa.^[16][13]

Timeline

• 1497–1505 – Leonardo Ca' Masser mentions sambuchi.^[4]
• 1498 – Portuguese zamuco is recorded.^[6]
• 1563 – Ramusio writes of zambuchi off the Zanzibar coast.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) A sambuq: a large lateen-rigged boat of the Red Sea and the East African coasts of the Indian Ocean.^{[6][14][13][1]}