sughero

Forms

sughero m (plural sugheri)^[1] The oldest forms are Old Italian suvaro and Old Italian suvero.^[2] Older texts also have sùgaro and sùgero.^[3] The old and northern regional form is sovero, and subero is an old learned form.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sūberus, from Latin sūber (“cork oak”), with a change of declension.^[2][6][7][1] The Latin neuter of the third declension was taken into the common series of masculine nouns in ⟨-o⟩.^[8] The learned subero continues the same Latin word.^[6][7]

The same word is Catalan suro and Sardinian suaru.^[6][9] Venetian suro and Bolognese söver belong here too.^[9] Beside the Latin word Meyer-Lübke posited a variant *sōber, the source of the old form Old Italian sovero and of Portuguese sovro, in the same relation as pūmex to pōmex.^[9][10]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[2][11][3] Walde–Hofmann's dictionary proposed a borrowing from Ancient Greek σῦφαρ (sûphar, “wrinkled skin”), which de Vaan finds doubtful because of the different meaning;^[11] Latin and Greek might both have taken a word from a third language.^[11] Sabatini–Coletti and Zingarelli give the Greek comparison as a possibility, and Zingarelli calls the word Mediterranean.^[8][12] Nocentini sees a loan from an unidentified source.^[6]

The Latin /b/ was weakened to /v/ in suvero, and /v/ then became the velar /g/ of the modern form.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is suvaro in the Statute of the customs duties of Siena of 1301–1303, which taxes a load of cork at four denari: La soma de’ suvari, iiii denari kabella.^[2][3] The sense there is the bark of the cork oak traded as a material.^[2]

Semantic evolution

By about 1350 the word also named the tree itself, as suvero in the Italian translation of Crescenzi, and Luigi Pulci wrote sughero for the tree in 1483: E sopra un alto sughero impiccollo (“and he hanged him on a tall cork oak”).^[2][13] For the tree, the feminine sughera appears before 1597 in Soderini.^[2]

From the material the word passed to things made of it: by 1865 Manuzzi records sughero for a cork stopper for bottles, and it also names the floats of fishing nets and lines.^[2][5][14] In botany it is the protective tissue that replaces the epidermis on stems and roots.^[4][5] The trade tells apart sughero maschio, the coarse first stripping, and sughero gentile or femmina, the elastic cork taken every nine to twelve years.^[4][5]

Figuratively it describes a very light person or thing, one that floats like cork.^[7][5] In some regions sughero is also a name for the horse mackerel, otherwise sugherello.^[3][9]

Timeline

• 1301–1303 – Suvaro appears in the Statute of the customs duties of Siena.^[2]
• Before 1303 – Nocentini and GRADIT date the word to before 1303.^[6][7]
• c. 1350 – Suvero names the tree in the translation of Crescenzi.^[2]
• 1483 – Luigi Pulci uses sughero for the tree.^[2]
• Before 1597 – G. Soderini uses sughera for the cork oak.^[2]
• Before 1735 – Sughereto “cork-oak wood” is recorded in N. Forteguerri.^[2]
• 1865 – Manuzzi records sughero for a cork stopper.^[2]
• 1875 – Sugheroso “porous like cork” is recorded in Rigutini–Fanfani.^[2][6]
• 1950 – Sugherificio “cork factory” is recorded.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The cork oak, the same as sughera.^[7][4][8]
2. cork: the bark of the cork oak, stripped periodically and used for stoppers, insulating panels, floats and shoe soles: un pannello di sughero.^[7][4][5]
3. An object made of cork, especially a stopper or a float for a fishing line or net.^[7][4][8]
4. (botany) The protective secondary tissue of stems and roots, the fellema.^[7][4][5]
5. (figurative) A very light person or thing.^[7][4]

Word family

• sughera
• sughereto
• sugheroso
• sugherificio
• sughericolo
• sugherello
• sugherone

Related words

• subero
• Latin suber
• Catalan suro

Usage notes

The set phrase quercia da sughero names the tree.^[7][4] Of a good swimmer or a boat that never sinks one says galleggiare come un sughero, to float like a cork.^[15][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 512
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana