tormenta

Forms

tormenta f (plural tormente)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French tourmente (“storm at sea”), recorded in French from 1155.^[2][3][4] Nocentini derives the French noun from tourmenter (“to torment”).^[3] GRADIT, Devoto–Oli, Zingarelli and Treccani trace it to Late Latin tormenta, properly the plural of Latin tormentum (“torment”).^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

Spanish tormenta and Portuguese tormenta mean “storm at sea”.^[9][10] DEI takes them from French too.^[9][10] Schuchardt explained the sense of storm by the influence of *turmine, from Latin turbo (“whirlwind”), but Meyer-Lübke rejected this, since neither form survives in Romance.^[9] The older Italian sense, “storm at sea”, recorded in the 16th century, came according to Prati from Spanish or Portuguese, and the mountain sense from French.^[11][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is a passage of Carena, probably from his remarks on the Italian dictionaries (Milan, 1851), quoted by Viani.^[2] Carena would replace “the strange feminine Tormenta, from French Tourmente” for the dangerous mountain storm with frugno, the word used for it in the Apennines.^[2][11] The sense was a whirling storm of snow in the high mountains.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sea had come first.^[10][11] In the 16th century Ramusio and Sassetti used tormenta for a storm at sea, Sassetti and later Algarotti also the masculine tormento.^[10][11][2] Prati takes this sense from Spanish or Portuguese.^[10][11][2] Prati also finds tormento “storm” in the Old Italian Tavola ritonda.^[11] Zingarelli dates the word from before 1512.^[6]

The mountain sense came from French.^[11] Leopardi wrote in 1830 that he had passed through the tourmente in the Apennines, Turin had turmenta by 1814, and in Genoese tormenta is a typhoon or whirlwind.^[10][11] Giacosa used the word in 1886.^[2] Stoppani called a storm of wind-driven granular snow una vera tormenta, quella che forma il terrore delle Alpi, “a true tormenta, the terror of the Alps”, and Pascoli and D'Annunzio also use it.^[12]

Timeline

• 16th century – Ramusio and Sassetti use tormenta “storm at sea”.^[10][11]
• 1814 – Piedmontese turmenta is recorded at Turin.^[10][11]
• 1830 – Leopardi writes the French word tourmente of an Apennine storm.^[10][11]
• 1851 – Carena records tormenta for a snowstorm, as a French word.^[2][3][4]
• 1886 – Giacosa uses tormenta.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A blizzard of the high mountains: a storm of powdery snow lifted and driven by violent gusts of wind: La tormenta li costrinse a tornare al rifugio.^{[4][5][8][6][13]}
2. (obsolete, nautical) A storm at sea.^[10][11]

Related words

• tormento
• tormentare
• French tourmente
• Latin tormentum

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3829
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1001
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana