arto

Forms

arto m (plural arti)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin artus (“joint; limb”), a noun of the fourth declension.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin noun is used almost always in the plural, and its first sense, “joint”, is barely recorded; in poetry it was a synonym of membrum.^[6][7] De Vaan suggests that articulus was coined as a singular for it.^[6]

The Latin word continues Proto-Italic *artus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r-tú- (“juncture, ordering”), from the root *h₂er- (“to join, fit together”).^[6][1] Its cognates include Ancient Greek ἀρτύς (artús, “arrangement”) and ἀρτύω (artúō, “to arrange”), and Old Armenian արդ (ard, “order; ornament”).^[6][1] From the same root come armus (“shoulder”), which Nocentini names, and ars (“skill”) and arma (“arms”).^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the naturalist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti (1774), for a part of the body joined to the trunk and made of several movable segments.^[2][4] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the word to the 14th century.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The word has stayed a term of anatomy and zoology.^[4][2][9] Tommaseo–Bellini described it as an anatomists' word, used mostly in the plural, quoting Algarotti's arti superiori ed inferiori (the upper and lower limbs), and set it apart from membra, the fleshy parts.^[9] In everyday Italian braccia and gambe are used, and arto belongs to medicine, sport and zoology, where it names the limbs of vertebrates and the appendages of invertebrates alike.^[4][10]

Medicine added arto fantasma, the pain felt by an amputee as if it came from the lost limb.^[5][10]

Timeline

• 14th century – Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the noun to this century.^[3][8]
• 1774 – Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti uses arto for a limb.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy, zoology) A limb: a movable part of the body of a human or an animal, joined to the trunk by joints and used for moving, grasping or touching.^[4][8][10]
2. In humans, an arm or a leg; in animals, a leg: Dopo la caduta non riusciva a muovere l'arto sinistro. Phrases: arti superiori (the arms), arti inferiori (the legs).^[4][5]
3. (medicine) arto fantasma: phantom limb, the sensation, often painful, that an amputated limb is still there.^[5][10][11]

Related words

• articolo
• Latin artus

Usage notes

A literary adjective arto “narrow, strait” is a separate word, a Latinism from the adjective Latin artus (“close, tight”); it is first found in Dante, Inferno 19: “Là giù nel fondo foracchiato e arto” (down there in the bottom, full of holes and narrow).^[4][12][13] It was also used of the narrow path to salvation, and of close kinship (cugin arto, Sacchetti).^[13][9] Another arto, a humanist Latinism from Latin arctos, meant the Great and Little Bear and, in poetry, the north.^[14][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1507
14. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 909