verno

Forms

verno m (plural verni)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian inverno (“winter”), shortened by aphaeresis, as Nocentini, Devoto–Oli, Sabatini–Coletti, Zingarelli, Treccani, Gabrielli and Devoto explain it.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} GRADIT, Battisti and Alessio and Wiktionary instead derive it directly from Latin hibernum (“winter”), the noun that replaced classical hiems.^[9][10][1] The TLIO treats it as a form of the same word.^[11]

Latin hibernum is short for hībernum tempus (“winter time”), from the adjective hībernus (“wintry”).^[2][1] DELI notes that the -n- of inverno may already have entered spoken Latin, by a false division with the preposition in.^[12] hībernus goes back to Proto-Italic *heimrinos, from the root of hiems, Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰey-, and is cognate with Ancient Greek χειμερινός (kheimerinós).^[2][13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Battisti and Alessio date the word to the 13th century, in Jacopone da Todi.^[10] DELI notes that Dante uses inverno only three times against the more frequent verno.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Dante, Petrarch and the Villani chronicle use the word for winter (tribolarono il verno, come la state, “they harassed it in winter as in summer”).^[14][12] Petrarch's ship “full of forgetfulness” sails a rough sea at midnight in winter (Passa la nave mia colma d'oblio … il verno).^[3][6]

From “winter” the word came to mean the cold of winter, as in Dante's line on the equator, which always stays between the sun and the winter (che sempre riman tra 'l sole e 'l verno), and a storm, as in Tasso's cloud “that brought night and storm” (che portò notte e verno).^[9][6] Figuratively it stood for old age.^[5][7] Leopardi still used it (pria che l'erbe inaridisse il verno), but today it is poetic or archaic.^[9][4][6]

Timeline

• 13th century – Jacopone da Todi uses verno.^[10]
• 14th century – Dante uses verno far more often than inverno.^[12][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary, poetic) winter, inverno.^[9][3][4][6]
2. (by extension, literary) Winter cold, frost.^[9][4][6][7]
3. (archaic) storm, tempesta, burrasca.^[9][3][5][6]
4. (figurative, obsolete) Old age.^[5][7]

Word family

• svernare
• vernare
• vernino
• vernata

Related words

• inverno
• invernale
• Latin hibernum

Usage notes

A separate adjective verno “vernal, of spring”, now obsolete, is a learned borrowing of Latin vernus, from Latin vēr (“spring”);^{[9][4][14][10]} GRADIT dates it before 1492, and Lorenzo de' Medici wrote of the verno sole “spring sun”.^{[9][4][14][10]} It survives in the plant name leucoio verno, a translation of the scientific Leucoium vernum.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ 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)
7. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4028
11. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET