spino

Forms

spino m (plural spini)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spīnus (“thorn bush; blackthorn”), a feminine noun formed from spīna (“thorn”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Latin spīnus named only the blackthorn; in Italian the word became masculine and took on the general sense of “thorn” or “thorny plant”, or was narrowed to particular shrubs such as the hawthorn or the bramble.^[6][3]

The same word is Occitan espin, Catalan espí, Spanish espino, Portuguese espinho and Romanian spin.^[3][7] In some dialects it moved to the backbone: Irpinian spinu means “spine, back”.^[7]

De Vaan reconstructs spīna as Proto-Italic *speinā- and connects it with Latvian spina (“rod”) and Russian спина (spiná, “back, spine”), perhaps from the same base as spīca (“ear of grain”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the word to 1260, and GRADIT has it before 1320.^[9][4] Bono Giamboni uses it for the burning bush of Moses, il rovo, ovvero il spino (“the bramble, that is, the thornbush”), and Guittone d'Arezzo, in a letter echoing the parable of the sower, for seed fallen intra spini (“among thorns”).^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Tuscan translation of Crescenzi's treatise on farming (about 1350) uses spini for thorny branches set along a bank to protect young vines, and DELI dates the sense “wild plum, blackthorn” to that text.^[10][2] Petrarch's bosco folto di spini (“wood thick with thorns”) shows the plural for the thorns themselves.^[11]

Joined to an adjective or a noun, spino names many thorny plants in popular botany: spino bianco (the hawthorn, Italian biancospino), spino nero (the blackthorn), spino cervino (the purging buckthorn), spino di Giuda (the honey locust).^[12][9][6] In cheese-making the word passed to the tool that breaks the curd, because it was once a peeled branch of wild plum.^[6]

Timeline

• 1260 – First record, as Zingarelli dates it.^[9]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo writes of seed sown intra spini.^[10]
• c. 1350 – The Tuscan Crescenzi uses spino for the wild plum.^[2]
• Before 1536 – The adjective spino “thorny” is recorded.^[9]
• 1978 – Slang spino “joint”, clipped from spinello, is recorded.^[4][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thorny plant or bush; in particular the blackthorn or wild plum.^[13][9][14]
2. (regional, central Italy) A thorn or prickle of a plant: Ho le dita piene di spini.^[4][13][6]
3. In names of thorny plants: spino bianco “hawthorn”, spino nero “blackthorn”, spino cervino “purging buckthorn”, spino di Giuda “honey locust”, spino santo.^[9][6][14]
4. (dairying) A curd knife: the tool used to break the curd into even grains in cheese-making, also called frangicagliata or lira.^{[4][13][15][6]}

Word family

• spinatura
• biancospino
• porcospino

Related words

• spina
• Latin spīna

Usage notes

Spino is also an adjective “thorny”, used only in names of plants and animals: pero spino, uva spina, porco spino (porcospino).^[13][9][6] In slang spino is a clipping of spinello, a joint of cannabis (1978),^[4][9][10] and in zoology it is a bird of the genus Spinus, from scientific Latin, so named because these birds favour thorny plants.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ 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, p. 19, 925
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3593
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. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse