trave

Forms

trave f (plural travi)^[1] An old form is trabe, and the word was also masculine in old and in central and northern usage.^[2][3][4] Old plurals in -e and a Tuscan plural in -a are recorded.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trăbs (“beam”), continued in its accusative form.^[6][7][8][1] The word lives on in Italy, in Dalmatian trua and in Sardinian trae of Logudoro, and in the western Romance languages: Friulian traf, Old French tref, Old Occitan trau, Catalan trau “plank”, Spanish trabe and Portuguese trave.^[7][9][10] In Occitan it later died out because it fell together with the word for “hole”.^[9] The Italian word passed into Modern Greek and the Greek of Bova.^[10]

The links of the Latin word with other Indo-European words are not clear.^[6][2][11] Nocentini thinks Latin kept the original sense of “beam”, while the related words of other languages moved to “log house, enclosure, settlement”: Lithuanian trobà (“hut”), Old Irish treb (“house”), Welsh tre (“town”), German Dorf (“village”) and the English word thorp (“village”).^[7] The DEI adds Oscan triibum (“house”) as a possible relative, and Devoto sees a stem ⟨trebo-⟩ for wooden buildings in Celtic, Baltic and Germanic.^[10][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Francesco da Barberino in 1314, where the word is masculine: someone walks so heavily that he seems to carry a beam (Che par che porti un trave).^[6][7][13] The feminine follows about 1350 in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, who says that good beams are made from willow wood.^[6][13] Zingarelli dates the word to about 1250.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The beam of a roof or floor is the old core of the word, and the same timber served as a battering ram in war.^[14][11] Dante used le vive travi, “the living beams”, for the trees of the Apennines.^[14] Diminutives and collectives followed: travicello, a lesser beam laid on the main ones, in Boccaccio (1348–53), and travatura, a framework of beams, in Cosimo Bartoli (1550).^[6] A horse with white feet on one side was a cavallo travato.^[15][9]

With iron, steel and reinforced concrete the word passed to any long load-bearing member, and travatura reticolare, a truss, is recorded in 1914.^[6][11] Since 1953 trave has also been the balance beam of gymnastics.^[6] The saying about seeing the speck in another's eye but not the beam in one's own comes from the Gospel of Matthew (7:3).^[6][14]

Timeline

• 1314 – Francesco da Barberino uses trave as a masculine noun.^[6][7]
• c. 1350 – The translation of Crescenzi has the feminine trave.^[6]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses travicello.^[6]
• 1550 – Travatura and travata appear in Cosimo Bartoli.^[6]
• 1587 – Travone, a large beam, is recorded.^[6]
• 1914 – Travatura reticolare “truss” is recorded.^[6]
• 1953 – Trave is first recorded as a gymnastics apparatus.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A beam: a squared tree trunk, or a similar member of steel or reinforced concrete, set horizontally or at a slant to carry the weight of the structure above, as in a roof or floor.^[8][4][14]
2. (engineering) Any elementary load-bearing member much longer than it is wide, solid, hollow or profiled: trave a T, trave reticolare.^[4][16][8]
3. (gymnastics) The balance beam, and the event performed on it.^[4][2][8]
4. (aeronautics) Trave di coda: in an aircraft without a fuselage, the structure joining the wing to the tail.^[4][17][2]
5. (agriculture) The beam of a plough.^[8]
6. (nautical) The stock of an anchor.^[8]

Word family

• travicello
• travatura
• travata
• travato
• travetto
• travetta
• travone
• travame
• intravatura
• sottotrave

Related words

• architrave
• trabeazione
• trabiccolo
• Latin trabs
• Spanish trabe

Usage notes

Fare di un fuscello una trave (or di un bruscolo) is to make a mountain out of a molehill, and non vedere la trave nel proprio occhio is to see others' faults and not one's own.^[4][16][8] A slang trave, masculine and invariable, is a clipping of travestito “transvestite”.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 276
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3875
11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1013
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. Supplement 2004