English
polverine
Polverine comes from Italian polverino ‘priming powder’, and goes back to Latin pulvis ‘dust’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpulvis‘dust’
- Italianc. 1300–presentpolverino‘priming powder’
- Englishearliest quotation 1946polverine
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpulvis‘dust’
- Italianc. 1300–presentpolverino‘priming powder’
- Englishearliest quotation 1946polverine
Earliest quotation: 1946, Kenneth Walker, I talk of dreams: an experiment in autobiography: “Mosquitoes and polverines, little midges so small as to…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pel- ‘flour, dust’
film, felt, simple, simply, push, filter, complain, pulse, repeal, fold, flaw, palate, expel, repel, palpable, palladium, propel, compulsive, pollen, palatable, pall, pelt, wallow, peloton, tuple, palatal, polemic, muffle, peplum, palp, pillion, apoplexy, pollinate, interpolate, 62 more
through Latin pulvis ‘dust’
Today it means
noun Glassmaker's ashes; a kind of potash or pearlash, brought from the Levant and Syria, used in the manufacture of fine glass.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin pulvis / polverine