vaiolo

Forms

vaiolo m (plural vaioli)^[1] The older and literary form is vaiuolo.^[1][2][3] Old forms include Old Italian vaiuollo, Old Italian vairolo, Old Italian varolo and Old Italian varuolo.^[4] A feminine Old Italian vaiuola is obsolete.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin variola (“pustule”), with a change of gender.^[1][5][2][6] DELI and Sabatini–Coletti start from a masculine Vulgar Latin *variŏlum, a diminutive of the adjective Latin varius (“many-coloured, spotted”).^[7][8][9] The diminutive was used as a noun from the 6th century, as variola “pustule” in the herbal Dynamidia Hippocratis, though the manuscript is of the 9th century.^[7] The feminine survives in the old plural Old Italian varuole of the 14th century.^[7]

The same Late Latin word gave Old Occitan vairola, Catalan verola and Spanish viruela, while French variole is a learned borrowing.^[6] Meyer-Lübke adds Friulian varuele, Engadine Romansh viroula and French petite vérole, and the Italian derivative ravaglione “chickenpox”.^[10]

The origin of varius is unclear: de Vaan finds both a link with Latin vafer and a derivation from a root meaning “to let” unconvincing.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from 1310, in Bencivenni, in the form vaiuollo.^[7] Bencivenni names it among the illnesses caused by bad air: febre e aposteme, vaiuollo e altre malatie assai (“fevers and abscesses, smallpox and many other illnesses”).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Giovanni Villani, who died in 1348, wrote that fue in Firenze una grande corruzione di male di vaiuolo (“there was a great outbreak of smallpox in Florence”).^[4][7] Francesco Redi, before 1698, noted that what Florence called vajuolo was morviglione in Rome.^[7]

With inoculation the word also came to mean the vaccine and, popularly, the vaccination itself: Giuseppe Parini's ode L'innesto del vaiuolo dates from 1765.^[2] Vaiolo acquaiolo or acquatico is a popular name for chickenpox.^[12][2] In botany the word names plant diseases caused by fungi, from 1871–92.^[7][8]

The disease was eradicated in humans by vaccination, and Devoto–Oli gives 1977 as the year of the last reported case.^[12]

Timeline

• 1310 – Bencivenni writes vaiuollo.^[7]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses vajuolo.^[7]
• 1598 – Florio's dictionary lists vaiólo and vaiuólo.^[7]
• Before 1698 – Francesco Redi compares Florentine vajuolo with Roman morviglione.^[7]
• 1765 – Giuseppe Parini's ode L'innesto del vaiuolo.^[2]
• 1770 – Vaiuoloso appears in the letters of the Verri brothers.^[7]
• 1871–92 – The botanical sense is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) smallpox: a severe, contagious viral disease with fever and a rash of pustules that leave scars, now eradicated in humans but still found in some animals.^{[5][12][2][1]}
2. (popular) The smallpox vaccine, and the vaccination itself: farsi il vaiolo.^[2][13]
3. (botany) A plant disease caused by fungi, which marks the leaves with spots, the same as vaiolatura.^[5][8][13]

Word family

• vaioloso
• vaiolatura
• variolato
• vaioloide
• vaiolizzazione
• antivaioloso

Related words

• vario
• varicella
• Late Latin variola
• French variole

Usage notes

Vaiolo acquaiolo or vaiolo acquatico is not smallpox but varicella, chickenpox.^[12][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
3. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ 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, 629
5. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli