Derivazione o composizione? Sull'origine della parola marangon(e) "falegname"

Resum

The traditional etymological explanation of Italian marangone falegname (carpenter), a Venetianism, takes Latin MERGERE to immerse, dive as its root. As the author has pointed out (Festschrift Kuen 1979), this explanation is untenable. The origin must be traced back to Latin MARRA axe, hatchet, the most important tool of carpenters. The etymological interpretation of marangone naval carpenter as a compound of Latin MARRA + RANCARE (an assimilated variant of RUNCARE to weed) recognizes the root MARR- axe. However, this hypothesis postulates a compound instead of a derivative, which seems an artificial conjecture because it dissociates the word from RUNCARE despite the lack of evidence of any parallel processes. Moreover, this assumption has yet another setback: it does not provide an etymological explanation for the homophone (and homograph) marangone pelican, cormorant. The author traces marangone1 naval carpenter and marangone2 cormorant to a common root: Latin MARRA axe, hatchet, which through normal phonetic development and the addition of a suffix becomes Italian marangone. This suggestion is supported by the semantic evolution of Greek pe/lekuj axe → pelekanÒj pelican and by the parallel evolution of Latin SECURIS axe → securigera plant with axe-shaped leaves and the similar meaning found in Greek pe/lekuj→peleki)uoj axe shape (name of plant). Hence, the assumption of a compound must be abandoned because it is unconvincing from mere formal evidence.