Etymologically
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tomba

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Pronunciation

Forms

tomba f (plural tombe)[1] An old form is Old Italian tomma, used by Cecco d'Ascoli and the Anonimo romano.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin tumba, a late word (4th century, Prudentius) that Christian writers took from Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “burial mound”).[3][4][5][1] The Greek word is old, used since Homer, and of unclear origin; it first meant the mound of earth heaped over a grave, while τάφος (táphos) was the grave dug in the ground.[3] Zingarelli derives the Latin word from a variant τύμβα (túmba).[6]

The same word is found across the Romance languages: French tombe, Occitan tomba, Catalan tomba “coffin”, Spanish tumba, Portuguese tumba, Sardinian tumba and Aromanian tumbă “mound”.[4][7] In Friulian tumbe it means a small hill.[7][8]

Nocentini puts the Greek noun in the same family as Latin tumulus (“mound; grave”).[4] Wiktionary traces it, probably, to Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- (“to swell”).[1] G. G. Nicholson proposed instead a Latin verb Vulgar Latin *tumbō from turbinō, but DELI finds this no more convincing.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), for a place of burial: “Ciascun rivederà la sua trista tomba, / ripiglierà sua carne e sua figura” (“each will see again his sad tomb and take back his flesh and his shape”).[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio uses the word for a cave used as a prison (1348–1353), an Amiata document of 1367 for an underground vault, and Franco Sacchetti, before 1400, for a low, dark dwelling.[3] The hydraulic sense, a vaulted culvert under a canal, gave the northern tombìn, the source of tombino, a drain cover; tombarolo, a robber of ancient tombs, is a Roman formation of 1963, and tombale follows French pierre tombale.[3][8]

Modern figurative uses rest on the tomb as the place of silence and death: essere una tomba or muto come una tomba is said of someone who keeps a secret, avere un piede nella tomba of someone near death, and dalla culla alla tomba means “from birth to death”.[5][9][6] German has borrowed Tomba for an Etruscan tomb.[10]

Timeline

  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses tomba in the Inferno.[3]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for a cave used as a prison.[3]
  • 1367 – An Amiata document uses it for an underground vault.[3]
  • Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses it for a dark dwelling.[3]
  • 1883 – Tombino is recorded in the sense “drain”.[3]
  • 1900 – Tombale is recorded.[3]
  • 1963 – Tombarolo is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tomb, grave: a place or structure for the burial of one or more bodies: Ogni domenica porta dei fiori sulla tomba del nonno.[5][9][11]
  2. (figurative) A person who can keep a secret: Puoi dirmelo, sono una tomba.[5][9]
  3. (figurative) Death: dalla culla alla tomba.[5][9]
  4. (figurative) A cramped, dark, gloomy room or dwelling: Quel seminterrato è una tomba.[5][9][6]
  5. A cave; an underground vaulted channel for water.[5][11][6]

Word family

  • tombale
  • tombarolo
  • tombino
  • oltretomba
  • intombare
  • tumulo
  • French tombe
  • Latin tumba
  • Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos)

Usage notes

Silenzio di tomba is absolute silence, and rivoltarsi nella tomba, said of a dead person, is “to turn in one's grave”.[9][6] The GDLI gives a separate tomba for the Old Italian senses “mound, ridge” (Dante's Inferno 19) and “medieval estate with its houses”, from Medieval Latin tumba (Ravenna, 970), itself the same late Latin word.[2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 997
  9. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  11. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse