vendemmia

Forms

vendemmia f (plural vendemmie)^[1] Old Italian forms include vendemia, vendiema, vendegna and vindemie.^[2] Vendemia and vindemia survived as old literary forms.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vindēmia (“grape harvest”).^{[6][7][8][1][9]} The Latin word comes from an earlier *vīnodēmia, the “taking off” of the wine, a compound of vīnum (“wine; grapes”) and the stem of dēmō (“to take away”), itself from dē- and emō (“to take”).^{[6][7][10][3][11]} Treccani gives a Late Latin form with a short ⟨i⟩.^[12] That verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁em- (“to take”).^[13]

The word is found across Romance: French vendange, Occitan vendemia, Catalan verema, Spanish vendimia and Portuguese vindima, Logudorese binnenna, Engadine vindemgia and Friulian vendeme.^[7][9] Devoto explains the double ⟨mm⟩ as the Italian strengthening of the group /mj/ after the stress.^[14] Latin also had the verb vindēmiō and the noun vindēmiātor, the sources of vendemmiare and vendemmiatore.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Latin form, vendimia is recorded at Parma in 854.^[6] The first Italian record is a Siena document of 1263, which notes money paid at Bari per la vendiema (“for the grape harvest”).^[2] The sense was the seasonal work of picking the grapes.^[2]

Semantic evolution

By the first half of the 14th century the word also meant the season of the harvest (Villani, before 1348), and in the TLIO the produce of the harvest, the wine.^[6][2] It was used figuratively for plunder and for the booty of a raid.^[2] In the 16th century it meant a gain (Firenzuola), the grapes themselves (Caro), and in Lauro also the gathering of olive oil and honey;^[5] Chiabrera used it for wine.^[5] Caro also used it for the quantity of grapes picked, before 1566.^[6] Turin dialect uses it for cutting out the honey, and Friulian and Occitan name a month after the harvest.^[9] Tuscan proverbs include ramo corto, vendemmia lunga (“short branch, long vintage”).^[4]

The French revolutionary calendar named its first month French vendémiaire (1793), formed with the suffix ⟨-aire⟩ rather than from Late Latin vindēmiālis;^[6][7] Italian took it as vendemmiaio in 1891.^[6][7] English used vendemmia in 1826, in the plural vendemmias.^[15]

Timeline

• 854 – Latin vendimia is recorded at Parma.^[6]
• 1263 – A Siena document has vendiema.^[2]
• 1286–1290 – A Florentine document has vendemia.^[2]
• Before 1348 – G. Villani uses it for the season of the harvest.^[6]
• c. 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses vendemmia.^[6]
• Before 1566 – Caro uses it for the quantity of grapes picked.^[6]
• 1826 – Vendemmias is recorded in English.^[15]
• 1891 – Vendemmiaio is recorded.^[6][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The grape harvest, the picking of grapes for wine or for eating: Quest'anno la vendemmia comincerà presto.^{[8][16][17][3][12][1]}
2. The season of the grape harvest, usually the end of September.^{[8][16][17][12]}
3. The quantity of grapes picked;^{[8][16][3][12]} (literary) the wine made from them.^{[8][16][3][12]}
4. (figurative) A rich haul or crop of anything; a large profit: una vendemmia di medaglie.^{[8][16][17][3][11]}
5. (poetic) Grapes on the vine; vines.^{[8][16][17][12][11]}
6. (obsolete) The gathering of honey.^[3][5]

Word family

• vendemmiabile
• vendemmiaio
• vendemmiare
• vendemmiatore
• vendemmiuccia

Related words

• vino
• Latin vindēmia
• French vendange

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4008
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 466
15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ 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
17. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse