Borgomale is a ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' (municipality) in the
Province of Cuneo
Cuneo (Italian), or Coni (Piedmontese), is a province in the southwest of the Piedmont region of Italy. To the west it borders on the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ( departments of Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Haut ...
in the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
region
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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, located about southeast of
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
and about northeast of
Cuneo
Cuneo (; pms, Coni ; oc, Coni/Couni ; french: Coni ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the fourth largest of Italy’s provinces by area.
It is located at 550 metres (1,804 ft) in ...
.
Borgomale borders the following municipalities:
Alba
''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scottish people, Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed i ...
,
Benevello
Benevello is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about northeast of Cuneo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 451 and an area of .All demographics a ...
,
Bosia,
Castino
Castino is an Italian village located in Piedmont (Province of Cuneo), about southeast of Turin and about northeast of Cuneo.
It is on a ridge between two valleys named after the rivers Bormida and Belbo
The Belbo is a river of southern Piedmo ...
,
Lequio Berria
Lequio Berria is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about northeast of Cuneo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 542 and an area of .All demographi ...
, and
Trezzo Tinella
Trezzo Tinella is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about 50 kilometres northeast of Cuneo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 350 and an area ...
.
The 15th century castle in the village was formerly owned by the Falletti Marquises of Barolo. It was built on an existing fortification. It became a residential place after the passage of ''Borgomale'' to Casa Savoia (1631, Peace of Cherasco), and figures among the "Open Castles" of Lower Piedmont.
The name of the village is connected with the concept of 'apple tree' (Italian ''melo'') and/or 'apple' (Italian ''mela'') and the current denomination of the village, with '-male' ('bad', 'evil'), derives from a ''bona fide'' paretimology produced over time by the local speakers and due to the confusion between Latin ''mălum'', 'bad ', 'evil', and Latin ''mālum'', 'apple 'and/or 'apple tree'. ''Borgomale'' was originally 'the village of apples', or 'the village of the apple trees', and, over time, it became 'the bad village', or 'the village of evil', due to the misunderstanding of the vowel 'quantity' of the Latin lexemes related to its toponym.
[Francesco Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco Cavallaro, and František Kratochvíl]
Diachronic Toponomastics and Language Reconstruction in South-East Asia According to an Experimental Convergent Methodology: Abui as a Case Study
in Review of Historical Geography and Toponomastics, vol. 10, nº 19-20, 2015, pp. 32-34.
References
Cities and towns in Piedmont
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