armato

Forms

armato (feminine armata, masculine plural armati, feminine plural armate)^[1] Forms recorded before 1375 include Old Italian armatu, armado and armà.^[2] Dialect forms are Ligurian armôu at Genoa, Lombard armàa at Milan, and Venetian armà in Venice and Piedmont.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin armātus (“armed”), the past participle of armō (“to arm”), from arma (“weapons”).^[3][1][4] The modern dictionaries treat it as the past participle of Italian armare, and DELI lists it under arma.^[5][6][7]

The Latin participle continues in the other Romance languages too: Old French armaz (in a 10th-century poem on the Passion), French armé, Old Occitan armads, Catalan armat, and Spanish armado and Portuguese armado.^[3] Latin already used the participle as a noun, “an armed man, soldier”, mostly in the plural, and this too continued in Old French and Old Occitan.^[3][4] The sense “provided, furnished” is a medieval development, connected with the Medieval Latin verb armare (“to apply, to furnish”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the form armatu in the Ritmo su Sant'Alessio of the early 13th century, and armato in the Novellino at the end of the century, meaning “provided with weapons”.^[7] The LEI has an Old Pisan armato in a bestiary of the early 13th century and an Old Sienese one in 1253.^[3] The TLIO's first record is a Lombard text of the mid-13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word of armed men, of ships fitted out for war, of a weapon loaded and ready to fire, of a fishing or fowling net set to catch its prey, of fortified places, and of animals equipped by nature with means of attack or defence; as a noun it meant a soldier.^[2] Dante's “Cesare armato con li occhi grifagni” (“Caesar in arms, with hawk's eyes”, Inferno 4.123) is among the GDLI's quotations.^[8]

Figurative use, “provided with” a quality (patience, good will), is old and still current.^[9][2] Technical senses came later: reinforced building materials such as cemento armato “reinforced concrete” and vetro armato “wired glass”, and cables protected by a sheath.^[5][10] In zoology the word is used of animals bearing spines, scales or hooks, and in heraldry of animals whose claws or teeth are of another tincture.^[9][10] Political phrases include lotta armata “armed struggle”, forze armate “armed forces” and pace armata “armed peace”.^[5][11]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Armatu appears in the Ritmo su Sant'Alessio.^[7]
• 1253 – An Old Sienese text has armato.^[3]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino has armato.^[7]
• 1300s – Dante describes “Cesare armato” in the Inferno.^[8]
• 1619 – Armato is recorded of a fencer protected by armour.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. armed, carrying weapons: Due uomini armati sono entrati nella banca.^[9][5][6]
2. Done with weapons: un conflitto armato, a mano armata (at gunpoint).^[5][12]
3. (figurative) Provided, equipped with something: armato di pazienza.^[9][5][6]
4. (technical) reinforced or protected by a frame or sheath: cemento armato (reinforced concrete), cavo armato (armoured cable).^[5][10][12]
5. (zoology) Of an animal or organ, bearing spines, scales, hooks or similar means of defence or attack.^[9][10][12]
6. (heraldry) Of an animal, having claws or tusks of a different tincture from its body.^[9][10]

Noun

1. An armed man, a soldier, mostly in the plural: gli armati.^[9][5][12]

Word family

• armata
• armatamente

Related words

• arma
• armare
• armadillo
• Latin armātus

Usage notes

Fixed expressions include armato fino ai denti “armed to the teeth” and carro armato “tank”.^[9][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1280
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 666
9. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. Suppl. 2009
12. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana