sorgo

Forms

sorgo m (plural sorghi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Venetian sorgo, the word of the Veneto, where the plant has had this name since the 12th century, and writers on agriculture made it Italian.^[2][3][4] Meyer-Lübke derived the Italian word from Emilian soreg, and the GDLI allows either region.^[5][6]

The dialect word continues Vulgar Latin *sŭricum, with granum understood: “grain of Syria”.^[2][4][7] It is a popular form of Latin syricus (“Syrian”), from Syria, whose variant Suria shows the old Latin rendering of Greek ⟨y⟩ as ⟨u⟩.^[4][2][8] The Latin adjective was taken from Ancient Greek Συρικός (Surikós), from Συρία (Suría).^[1][4] The voicing of ⟨c⟩ to ⟨g⟩ and the loss of the short inner vowel are northern developments, typical of Venetian.^[4][8]

Medieval Latin texts of the region have Medieval Latin surico in Rather, bishop of Verona (10th century), and soricum, surgus and suricum in a Paduan codex of the 12th century.^[2][3] The Veneto also has the place name Sorgà, ⟨Sorgada⟩ in 927.^[2][3]

French sorgho and Spanish sorgo come from Italian.^[4][9] The New Latin genus name ⟨Sorghum⟩ was formed on the Italian word, and the English word sorghum comes from it.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in Medieval Latin as sorgum in a Venetian document of 1190.^[2] The first Italian record is in Gambino d'Arezzo, who died in 1479, in the sense of the cereal now also called saggina: Non vidi mai tanta grana di sorgo fra Gorizia, l'Isonzo e Cavitale, quant'alme afflitte (“I never saw so many grains of sorghum between Gorizia, the Isonzo and Cavitale as afflicted souls”).^[2][6] GRADIT dates the word to the early 13th century, and the GDLI also quotes a French–Venetian glossary that glosses a French word with sorgo.^[12][6]

Semantic evolution

Writers on agriculture used sorgo from Soderini on, but in 1813 Bamba still wanted it replaced by saggina or melica rossa.^[2][3] In the dialects the name moved to maize: in Vicenza and Belluno sorgo now means maize, and Venetian tells sorgo rosso “sorghum” from sorgo turco “maize”.^[2][3] In Abruzzo súreche is sorghum.^[2]

Modern Italian uses sorgo for the plants of the genus Sorghum, grown for grain, fodder, sugar and brooms, with set names such as sorgo zuccherino and sorgo selvatico.^[12][10][13] The word passed into German as sorg in 1423–1424, into French in 1542 and into English as Surgo in 1720.^[9]

Timeline

• 927 – The place name Sorgada (now Sorgà) is recorded in the Veneto.^[2][3]
• 1190 – Medieval Latin sorgum is recorded in Venice.^[2]
• 1423–1424 – German sorg is recorded.^[9]
• Before 1479 – Gambino d'Arezzo uses Italian sorgo.^[2][6]
• 1542 – French sorgho is first recorded.^[9]
• 1590s – English sorghum appears, through the New Latin genus name.^[11]
• 1813 – Bamba proposes to replace sorgo with saggina.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. sorghum, saggina: a tall cereal grass with its flowers in panicles, grown for grain, fodder, sugar and for making brooms.^{[12][13][7][10][1]}
2. (botany, capitalised) Sorgo, the genus of these grasses.^[12][7][13]

Word family

• sorghetto
• sorgagna

Related words

• saggina
• Latin syricus
• English sorghum

Usage notes

Sorgo is also the first person singular present of sorgere “to rise”.^[13][7][1] Older Italian had two minor words of this spelling: sorgo, a variant of sorcio “mouse”, and sorgo, a form of sarago, a sea bream, in Maestro Martino.^[14][6][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 931
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 416
9. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
10. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET