Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
A monolingual Italian dictionary I consulted said that semola means 'bran', although in some southern dialects it means 'flour'. The word is rare, only showing up in Celsus and Pliny. I took a look at the Celsus passage where he discusses simila. He groups it in with the "windy" foods which cause flatulence and ought to avoided. You might want to find Watkins' article "Let Us Now Praise Famous Grains" (if you're interested, I can look up the citation).


That's interesting - is there any way to know whether the usage in southern dialects is more or less recent than the other dialects?

I found Watkins article - was there a particular passage that you thought was relevant?