vitello

vitello¹ calf

Etymology tree of vitello¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vitulus

Latin vitellus

French veau

Italian vitello

Romanian vițel

From the same root · vitello¹

Latin vitula ← vitulus

Pronunciation

• /viˈtɛl.lo/^[1]

Forms

vitello m (plural vitelli)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the calf is inherited from Latin vitellus (“little calf”), a diminutive of vitulus (“calf”).^[2][3][4][1] DELI sees in the diminutive the preference of rustic Latin for such forms.^[2] The word survives in all the Romance languages except Romanian: French veau (the source of English veal), Occitan vedel, Catalan vedell, Romansh vde and Friulian vidiel.^[5][3][6]

Latin vitulus meant a yearling: de Vaan sets up Proto-Italic *wet-elo- (“yearling, calf”) from Proto-Indo-European *wet- (“year”), the root of vetus (“old”).^[7][2][8] Nocentini explains the ⟨i⟩ as the same alternation of ⟨ve-⟩ and ⟨vi-⟩ as in other Latin pairs, and compares an Aeolic Greek word for a young animal born within the year, a Sanskrit word for “calf” and German Widder (“ram”).^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1277–1296, for the young of the cow up to about a year old.^[9] DELI dates this sense to 1310, in Zucchero Bencivenni.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the calf as a sacrificial victim, as the fatted calf of the parable of the prodigal son, as the golden calf of the Israelites and as the symbol of Saint Luke;^[9] vitello di latte was a suckling calf.^[9] The meat is called vitello from 1546 in Luigi Alamanni and the leather from 1728 in Anton Maria Salvini.^[2] In much of Italy the meat is vitella, a word recorded in 1339;^[2] Prati related it to the preference for the meat of young females, thought more tender, and Panzini asked in 1935 why the slaughtered calf became vitella from Florence southwards.^[2]

The augmentative vitellone, a bullock of one or two years fattened for slaughter, took the figurative sense of an idle, immature young man from Federico Fellini's film I vitelloni (1953), about the young men of a provincial town.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1277–1296 – A Florentine document records vitello.^[9]
• 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses the word for a calf under a year old.^[2]
• 1339 – Vitella is recorded for veal.^[2]
• 1546 – Luigi Alamanni uses vitello for the meat.^[2]
• 1728 – Anton Maria Salvini uses it for calfskin.^[2]
• 1931 – Vitellone is recorded for a fattened young bullock.^[2]
• 1953 – Fellini's film I vitelloni gives vitellone its figurative sense.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A calf, the young of the cow, up to about a year old while it keeps its milk teeth.^[4][10][11]
2. veal, the meat of the calf: un arrosto di vitello.^[4][10][11]
3. calfskin, tanned calf leather: stivali di vitello.^[4][10][11]
4. (religion) Vitello d'oro, the golden calf the Israelites worshipped while Moses was on Sinai;^[10][12][13] adorare il vitello d'oro, to worship money.^[10][12][13]
5. (zoology) Vitello marino, a seal.^[10][11][12]

Word family

• vitella
• vitellino
• vitellone
• vitellaio

vitello² yolk

Etymology tree of vitello²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vitulus

Latin vitellus

French veau

Italian vitello

Romanian vițel

From the same root · vitello²

Latin vitula ← vitulus

Pronunciation

• /viˈtɛl.lo/^[1]

Forms

vitello m (plural vitelli)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the yolk is learned: it is borrowed from Latin vitellus (“egg yolk”), also neuter vitellum.^{[2][3][12][14]} The Latin word sounds the same as vitellus (“little calf”), but the link between them is unclear.^[2][11][15] The OLD suggests that it is perhaps the same word, and Nocentini explains it as a metaphor: the yolk, fed by the white and protected by the shell, is compared to a little animal fed and protected by its mother.^[16][3]

The Latin word also lives on in popular forms, as in the dialect of Urbino and in Sardinian oideddu in Logudorese, whose ⟨o-⟩ comes from Latin ovum (“egg”); Medieval Latin ovedellus at Venice in 1271 shows the same influence.^[6][2][5] Other learned forms are French vitellus and Spanish vitelo.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a verse cosmetic book of the late 15th century, as the yolk of an egg: Coci ova in aqua, e dur vengano bene; / talia per mezo e tra' fora el vitello (“Boil eggs in water until they are hard; cut them in half and take out the yolk”).^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

The adjective vitellino “yolk-coloured” is older, from 1310 in Aldobrandino da Siena and about 1350 in the vernacular Crescenzi.^[2] In the 16th century physicians wrote of the yolk as vitello, and botanists later used the word for a layer between the germ and the albumen of some seeds.^[14] In modern biology it is the reserve material in the egg cell that nourishes the embryo; the adjective vitellino in this sense dates from 1961.^[2][15]

Timeline

• 1310 – Vitellino “yolk-coloured” appears in Aldobrandino da Siena.^[2]
• Late 15th century – A verse cosmetic book uses vitello for the yolk.^[2][14]
• 1552 – Vitelloccio appears in Paolo Giovio's letters.^[2]
• 1961 – Vitellino is recorded as a term of biology.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (biology) The yolk of the egg cell, the reserve material that feeds the embryo; deutoplasma.^{[4][10][11][15]}
2. (dated) The yolk of an egg, tuorlo.^[10][14]