vitalba

Forms

vitalba f (plural vitalbe)^[1] It was also written as two words, Old Italian vite alba and Old Italian vite alva.^[2] An old variant vitàlbera points to a derived type with a diminutive ending.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vītis alba (“white vine”), a phrase of vītis (“vine”) and albus (“white”).^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The plant was named for its tendrils, which resemble those of the grapevine (vite).^[5] Nocentini and DEI see the Latin name as a translation of Ancient Greek ἄμπελος λευκή (ámpelos leukḗ, “white vine”), which in Greek named another wild climber, the bryony, often confused with the clematis.^[5][9] Devoto notes that the Latin phrase was influenced by the Italian word for the vine.^[10]

The compound belongs to Italy and the western Romance area: Occitan vidaubo and Catalan vidalba continue it, while the new formation French vigne blanche and Spanish vidarra replace it in France and Spain.^[9][5][11] Many Italian dialects presuppose a type *vitis albula with a diminutive second part: Lombard viàlber, Piedmontese viarbra and Corsican vitàrbura.^[9][3]

The Latin word for vine goes back to Proto-Italic *wītis and to a PIE derivative with the suffix Proto-Indo-European *-tis of the root Proto-Indo-European *weh₁y- (“to twine, wind”), so properly “that which twines”.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Novellino, a Florentine collection of tales of the late 13th century, with the sense of the climbing plant.^[4][2][6] In one of its tales a bell rope worn out by the rain has been patched with a strand of vitalba, which a starving horse starts to chew.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its botanical sense, and it also names a single strand or branch of the plant, used as a makeshift cord.^[3] Boccaccio has a character tie a vitalba round himself as a belt (e una vitalba si cinse sopr'esso).^[13][3]

Berni's derivative vitalbaio appears in the old phrase entrar nel vitalbaio, to get into a difficult undertaking.^[9] Linnaeus took the Italian name into botanical Latin as Clematis vitalba in 1735.^[9] A related purple-flowered species is called vitalba paonazza, also viticella or vitalbino.^[6][14]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – vitalba appears in the Novellino.^[4][6]
• 16th century – Berni uses the derivative vitalbaio.^[9]
• 1735 – Linnaeus names the species Clematis vitalba.^[9]
• 1805 – vitalbino is recorded by D'Alberti.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) old man's beard or traveller's joy (Clematis vitalba), a woody climber of the buttercup family with white, scented flowers in clusters and feathery seed heads, common in woods and hedges.^{[6][15][14][1]}
2. A strand or branch of this plant.^[3]

Word family

• vitalbino
• vitalbaio

Related words

• vite
• viticchio
• viticcio
• Latin vitis

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 932
4. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1058
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4070
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier