• Get Paid to Write for Comando Supremo: We are looking for talented researchers/writers who are fluent in English and can write original content on Italy in World War Two. Please reach out to webmaster@comandosupremo.com if interested!

Units Named After Winds

Webmaster

Administrator
Staff member
Posted 10 April 2005 by Guardia Pretoriana

I find conflicting reports on Italian units named after the winds.

EOLO - god of the wind
MAESTRALE - northwest wind?
AQUILONE - northwind
BOREA - also northwind?

What about southwest/southeast/east/west wind?

------------------

Posted 16 April 2005 by Michele

Italian "standard" names of the winds are as follow:

north: tramontana
north-east: grecale
east: levante
south-east: scirocco
south: ostro or mezzogiorno
south-west: libeccio
west: ponente
north-west: maestrale.

--------------

Posted 17 April 2005 by Guardia Pretoriana

Thank you and very helpful and interesting. But that begs the question:

What does "BOREA", "EOLO", and "AQUILONE" mean please?

--------------------

Posted 17 April 2005 by Michele

I think you already posted them correctly: Eolo is the italian name for the god of winds, from latin Eolus, while, as regards the others, they are synonymous for northern wind (but in this moment I don't remember where and in which case they are used. I read them but never heard them, so they should be mainly literary terms. A dictionary would be useful in this moment...). Note that during many centuries and with so many dialects (and constant input from latin) many names could arise for the same or similar thing...
For example, if you want to indicate "west" [NOTE] you could use:
"ovest" (from german, now the most used), "occidente" (from latin, the name I prefer), "ponente" (same meaning as occidente, but from the italian verb with similar meaning of the latin one. This is the name I hear and use more often). Same thing for other directions.

-----------------

Posted 18 April 2005 by FB

Borea should be the famous Bora, the north-east wind that is so common in Trieste especially.

The word should come from Buran, afaik this is a slav word for the same kind of wind.

It's a cold and often rather strong (last week it was up to 170 Kmh in Trieste) wind that comes from Siberia, travels all across Europe towards South-West and arrives on the Adriatic.

Best regards

--------------

Posted 18 April 2005 by Michele

I have just checked the etimology on a dictionary (not the best one, but the only one available in this moment). For people who don't know italian i have written the position of the stress in each word.

For "borea" (the stress is on "o") it says:

Borea: cold wind from north, which arrives, with respect to Italy and Greece, from mountains, so that it is also known as "tramontana" (stress on second "a"). Latins called it also "aquilo,-onis"
Eimology: from latin "Borea" (stress on "o") from greek "boreas" (stress on "e"), which in turn maybe derives from "oros" (=mountain, stress on the first "o").

"Bora" (stress on "o") is [local] contraction for "Borea" and so it has the same etimology. I has a correspondance with a slavic name, but I don't think it derives from the slavic "burja" or similar (Maybe the opposite, because it, in the end, is from greek. Slavs in Balkans were under byzantine empire till XI century and later had continuous contacts (wars) and most of them shared the same religion).
Note that the latin adjective "borealis,-e", italian "boreale" means "northern."
From this I should have remebered the etimology, it's really disappointing when one has ended the gymnasium since so many years and forget so many things. Maybe I am only becaming old... :cry:

and for "aquilone" (stress is on "o"):

Aquilone: 1. strong and impetuous wind, 2. the wind "tramontana" from north, also known as "rovaio" or "borea".
Etimology: from latin "aquilo, aquilonis" (nominative with stress on "i", genitive with stress on "o") derived from latin adjective "aquilus,-a,-um" (stress on first"a") that means dark coloured, because such wind often carries dark clouds.

Note that it has also other meanings, but they derive from "aquila" (stress on first "a", aquila is the bird called in german "Adler", I don't know the english name), so that properly it means "large aquila", so you have
3. a large "aquila", 4. the toy made with paper... which flies with a bit of wind.

---------------

Posted 19 April 2005 by FB

michele said:
I have just checked the etimology on a dictionary (not the best one, but the only one available in this moment). For people who don't know italian i have written the position of the stress in each word.

For "borea" (the stress is on "o") it says:

Borea: cold wind from north, which arrives, with respect to Italy and Greece, from mountains, so that it is also known as "tramontana" (stress on second "a"). Latins called it also "aquilo,-onis"
Eimology: from latin "Borea" (stress on "o") from greek "boreas" (stress on "e"), which in turn maybe derives from "oros" (=mountain, stress on the first "o").

"Bora" (stress on "o") is [local] contraction for "Borea" and so it has the same etimology. I has a correspondance with a slavic name, but I don't think it derives from the slavic "burja" or similar (Maybe the opposite, because it, in the end, is from greek. Slavs in Balkans were under byzantine empire till XI century and later had continuous contacts (wars) and most of them shared the same religion).
Note that the latin adjective "borealis,-e", italian "boreale" means "northern."
From this I should have remebered the etimology, it's really disappointing when one has ended the gymnasium since so many years and forget so many things. Maybe I am only becaming old... :cry:

and for "aquilone" (stress is on "o"):

Aquilone: 1. strong and impetuous wind, 2. the wind "tramontana" from north, also known as "rovaio" or "borea".
Etimology: from latin "aquilo, aquilonis" (nominative with stress on "i", genitive with stress on "o") derived from latin adjective "aquilus,-a,-um" (stress on first"a") that means dark coloured, because such wind often carries dark clouds.

Note that it has also other meanings, but they derive from "aquila" (stress on first "a", aquila is the bird called in german "Adler", I don't know the english name), so that properly it means "large aquila", so you have
3. a large "aquila", 4. the toy made with paper... which flies with a bit of wind.

Interesting, thanks.

It should also be interesting, with regards to Aquilone being "dark coloured" that in Trieste thier typical wind, Bora, is recognized under two species:

Bora Chiara (Clear Bora, in the sense of light coloured or transparent) that blows on clear days, without could and rain. In essence a good day, sunshine but windy, often very much so, fresh or cold (depending on the season) and

Bora Scura (Dark Bora) when the weather is really awfull, cloudy, rainy (or snowy), cold and windy.

I tend to agree with the Greek origin of Bora, Borea, Buran etc. it makes more sense after all. What I said before was reported from the TV weather forecasts (an Air Force Officer) that ance said something to the effect of what I wrote.

Best regards

-------------

Posted 19 April 2005 by Michele

Well, so only the "bora scura" could be properly called "aquilone" 😉 .

As regards "aquilone" it is curious that in Genoa and whole Liguria dark clouds are more often carried by winds coming from the south (from the sea) than from winds coming from north (the mountains). It would be interesting to know if in Roma dark clouds were carried by northern winds two-three thousends years ago, when such name was first used to indicate the northern wind!

The problem of etimology are, as always, sources, normally quite scarce. Researchers try to find when a word has been used and with which meaning reading all ancient texts they can find (and then try to reconstruct the movements of words through the language and though different languages. Normally languages with older and firmer written tradition influnced more the others). This is also complicated by the fact that words with similar sounds can have very different origin. The weather forecast officiers does not seem the more reliable sources (hope no one of them read this post...)


Best wishes.

PS: yes, Aquila=Eagle!!! how could I forget this name? G.P., this is the proof I am becaming old.
 
Top