semola

Forms

semola f (plural semole)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian semora, Old Italian semmola, Old Italian sembola and Old Italian simula.^[2][3] Lucca has sémmula.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *simula, a popular form of Latin simila (“finest wheat flour”).^{[5][6][7][8][2]} DELI starts directly from the classical word.^[9] Wiktionary compares the unexpected ⟨o⟩ of the second syllable with -evole.^[1]

The Latin word and similāgō appear only under the Empire, and the word is generally taken as a loan.^[5][1] DELI calls it pre-Indo-European and DEI and Zingarelli Mediterranean.^[9][4][8] Nocentini, comparing Ancient Greek σεμίδαλις (semídalis) and Akkadian samīdu, the name of a cereal, concludes that it came from the Near East, and Wiktionary traces both Greek and Latin to Aramaic and Akkadian.^[5][1] From Latin the word passed into Old High German semala, whence German Semmel.^[5][4]

French semoule and Spanish sémola are borrowed from Italian.^[5][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the old form semora to the 13th century, and the GDLI quotes it from the Anonimo Genovese, where it means bran.^[6][3] The TLIO's first record is a Pistoia document of 1300–1301; its first sense is fine flour without bran, the second bran itself.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word meant fine flour, and Old Italian used semola for both the fine flour and the bran sifted from it.^[2] The phrase crivellare la farina dalla semola “to sift the flour from the bran” meant separating the good from the bad.^[2] Giovanni Villani tells of besieged men who ate bread of millet and bran, “black as a mulberry and hard as enamel”.^[3][10]

Nocentini notes that the word properly means an intermediate product in milling durum wheat, and that by region it took the sense of middlings, bran, or figuratively freckles.^[5] The sense “freckles” is recorded from 1875.^[9] The diminutive semolino dates from 1772.^[9]

French borrowed the word as symole (1505), later semoule, and English recorded semola in 1853.^[11]

Timeline

• 13th century – The form semora is recorded.^[6][3]
• 1300–1301 – A Pistoia document has the word.^[2]
• c. 1350 – The translation of Crescenzi uses semola for coarse flour.^[9]
• 1505 – French symole, later semoule, is recorded.^[11]
• 1772 – Semolino appears.^[9]
• 1853 – English semola is recorded.^[11]
• 1875 – The sense “freckles” is recorded.^[9]
• 1902 – Semolato, of refined sugar, appears.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. semolina: the coarse product of milling durum wheat, used for pasta and bread: pasta di semola, pane di semola.^{[6][7][12][8]}
2. (regional) Bran, the residue of milling cereals.^[6][7][12]
3. (regional) Semolino.^[6][12]
4. (figurative, humorous) Freckles on the face: Ha il naso pieno di semola.^[6][7][12]

Word family

• semolino
• semolato
• semoloso

Related words

• Latin simila
• French semoule
• German Semmel

Usage notes

Vendere semola per farina “to sell bran for flour” is a set phrase for passing off something worthless.^[6] Tuscan proverbs include ogni grano ha la sua semola “every grain has its bran”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3451
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 f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse