tabacco

Forms

tabacco m (plural tabacchi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish tabaco, recorded in Spanish from 1535 in the chroniclers of the Indies.^[2][3][4][5] The further origin is disputed.^[2][6] The chroniclers said that the Spanish word was the Haitian name of the plant, and Nocentini, DEI and the GDLI regard it as a Taíno word of the extinct Arawakan language of Hispaniola, where it named both the tube used to smoke the leaves and the rolled leaves themselves.^[2][3][5][6]

Others, among them Corominas, see an older European name moved to the American plant: Arabic طُبَّاق (ṭubbāq), which before the discovery of America named several medicinal plants, especially the sticky fleabane (Inula viscosa).^{[2][7][8][9][1]} Devoto suggests that the Haitian word was crossed with the Arabic one, and fitted into the Italian nouns in ⟨-acco⟩ such as cosacco and bivacco.^[10] From Spanish the word passed into the other languages: French tabac (1600), German Tabak (1579) and English tobacco (1577).^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giovanni Battista Ramusio's collection of voyages (1550–1558), of natives who “took certain fumes through the nose, which they call tabacco”: the smoke or the product, not yet the plant.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The plant itself is named tabacco in Italian from 1713, when D. Auda writes that the Nicotiana is commonly called tabacco or “the queen's herb”.^[2] The habit of taking snuff gave tabacchiera, the snuffbox (1679), and the trade gave tabaccaio, the tobacconist (1698), with the regional tabacchino (1805), and tabaccheria, the shop.^[2][3] As an adjective for a golden brown colour, color tabacco is recorded in 1891.^[2][9]

The proverb Bacco, tabacco e Venere riducono l'uomo in cenere (“wine, tobacco and women reduce a man to ashes”) joins it to wine and love.^[7]

Timeline

• 1535 – Spanish tabaco is recorded in Oviedo.^[5]
• 1550–1558 – Giovanni Battista Ramusio uses tabacco for the smoke or snuff of the Indians.^[2][5]
• 1577 – English tobacco is recorded.^[5]
• 1579 – German Tabak is recorded.^[5]
• 1679 – Tabacchiera “snuffbox” is recorded.^[2]
• 1698 – Tabaccaio “tobacconist” appears in Giovanni Andrea Moniglia.^[2][5]
• 1713 – D. Auda uses tabacco for the plant.^[2]
• 1891 – Color tabacco is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. tobacco: the dried, cured and cut or ground leaves of the tobacco plant, for smoking, chewing or taking as snuff: tabacco da pipa, tabacco da fiuto.^[4][7][9]
2. (in the plural) The kinds and brands of tobacco: rivendita di sali e tabacchi (tobacconist's).^[4][7][9]
3. (botany) The tobacco plant, any of the nightshade family plants of the genus Nicotiana, especially Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana rustica.^[4][7][9]
4. Smoking as a habit: Ha rinunciato al tabacco..^[9]
5. A golden or dark brown like cured tobacco leaves, also as an invariable adjective: una giacca color tabacco.^[4][9]

Word family

• tabaccaio
• tabaccheria
• tabacchiera
• tabacchina
• tabacchino
• tabaccoso
• tabaccone
• tabacchicoltura
• tabacchicoltore
• antitabacco
• tabaccare

Related words

• nicotina
• Spanish tabaco
• French tabac
• English tobacco

Usage notes

DEI and the GDLI record an older tabacco, from the Arabic name of the sticky fleabane, for an aromatic medicine made from that plant, in use in the 15th and 16th centuries; from it come the old tabaccare “to charm” in Luigi Pulci and tabacchino “ladies' man, go-between” in Aretino and Doni.^[11][12][2] DEI also has an old Venetian tabacco, the cook on a galley, recorded in Medieval Latin from 1350 and compared with Turkish.^[11]

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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
6. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 645
7. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3689
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 646