trebbio

Forms

trebbio m (plural trebbi)^[1] Old Italian forms include tribbio and tribio.^[2] The GDLI also lists old trébio and trèpio, and Wiktionary the variants treppio, treppo and trebbo.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trivium (“place where three roads meet”), from tri- (“three”) and via (“road”).^{[4][5][6][7][1][8]} The Latin noun is the neuter of the adjective trivius (“having three approaches”), and the meeting of three roads was a place where people gathered.^[1][8] Sabatini–Coletti call it the word of popular tradition beside the learned trivio.^[6][4]

The same Latin word survives as Occitan trevi and Old Friulian trep.^[4][9][10] In the north, Old Italian trebio meant a fork in the road, in Salimbene in the 13th century and in documents of Modena (1327) and the Frignano (1338); the dialect of Bologna has treb for three people meeting to talk.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Florentine poet Monte Andrea, in the second half of the 13th century, already in a figurative sense that the TLIO glosses as a public declaration.^[2] DEI dates the sense “crossroads” to the 13th-century Italian translation of Orosius, and Zingarelli dates the word to before 1292.^[10][7]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the trebbio was a public place where several roads cross, not always three: Niccolò da Poggibonsi, after 1345, found uno trebbio di quatro vie (“a meeting of four roads”), and the old Italian Bible has il trebbio di due vie.^[2][3] The Fioretti of St Francis tell how the friars reached uno trebbio di via, per lo quale si poteva andare a Siena, a Firenze e ad Arezzo (“a crossroads from which one could go to Siena, Florence and Arezzo”).^[2][11] The TLIO also records it for a place where a show was put on, with a negative colouring.^[2]

From the street corner as a meeting place came the figurative senses of the 16th century: a group of people (Berni, Firenzuola), a knot of people chatting (Borghini), and an entertainment;^[10] far trebbio is recorded in Segneri in the 17th century.^[10] By the 19th century Tommaseo noted that the word was no longer used for trivio.^[12] Pascoli still used it as a literary word, and GRADIT marks it as literary.^[5]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – Monte Andrea uses trebbio figuratively.^[2]
• 1288 – A Medieval Latin document of Bologna uses trivium.^[10]
• 1327 – Northern trebio “fork in the road” is recorded at Modena.^[10]
• 1342 – A Perugia statute uses trebbio of a crossroads.^[2]
• 1370–1390 – The Fioretti of St Francis use uno trebbio di via.^[2]
• 16th century – Berni and Firenzuola use it for a party of people.^[10]
• 17th century – Segneri uses far trebbio.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary, archaic) A place where three roads meet; a crossroads, a trivio.^{[5][13][6][14][1]}
2. (figurative) A knot of people who stop in the street to chat: far trebbio, to gather and chat.^{[5][13][6][7][1]}
3. By extension, a party of friends, a gathering: andare a trebbio, stare a trebbio.^{[5][13][14][7]}

Related words

• trivio
• tre
• via
• Latin trivium

Usage notes

An obsolete trebbio, a threshing implement or a harrow, first recorded in Florio in 1563, has a separate source: Latin tribulum (“threshing sledge”), influenced by trebbiare.^{[5][7][3][10]} GRADIT and Zingarelli give it as a homograph of its own, and the GDLI as trebbio².^[5][7][3]

In Florence the old word survives in the place name Croce al Trebbio, a cross standing where three streets meet.^[12][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
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. 21, 293
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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3879
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana