buttare

Forms

buttare (first-person singular present bùtto, first-person singular past historic buttài, past participle buttàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)^[1] Old Italian forms include butar, butare and butato, many from northern Italy;^[2] an old variant is bottare.^[3][4] The southern forms are Neapolitan vottare and Sicilian vottare.^[1]

Etymology

Most sources take the word as borrowed from Old French boter, a form of buter (modern French bouter), or as a loan from Old Occitan botar, of Germanic origin.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The Germanic source is usually given as Frankish *bōtan (“to strike”), related to Middle High German bōzen and English beat.^[5][6][9] DEI starts from a Frankish *buttan or *buttōn, which to judge by Middle Dutch botten meant “to strike” and “to throw, sprout”, and rules out that form and Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bautan, “to strike”) on phonetic grounds;^[10] Devoto and Devoto–Oli derive it from the Gothic word.^[11][12] DELI accepts a Germanic source through Gallo-Romance.^[13]

The Germanic etymology is contested because of its sound changes.^[5] Merlo preferred an onomatopoeic root imitating the sound of something bursting with a bang, a view Prati accepted, and the LEI sets up pre-Latin onomatopoeic bases meaning “blow”.^[13][4][5] Nocentini replies that such bases are reconstructed for the purpose and leave no trace in Latin, and that the family has its centre in Gallo-Romance, with derivatives meaning “to strike; push, throw” and “to sprout”.^[5] The verb was passed on to Spanish botar and Portuguese botar, and botta “blow” and bottone “button” belong to the same family.^[9][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Tuscan translation of Albertano by Andrea da Grosseto, of 1268, with the sense “to give something a push, to move it away or send it into a new place”;^[2][5] Nocentini dates the word to 1264.^[2][5] DELI's first record is Dante's Inferno (1300–1313): “Là giù il buttò” (he threw him down there).^[13][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb for throwing out nets, throwing to the ground, emitting with force, vomiting and the putting forth of leaves and fruit by plants.^[2] DELI dates “to waste” to 1544 (Bandello), “to sprout” to before 1698 (Redi) and the reflexive “to throw oneself” to before 1342 (Cavalca).^[13]

D'Alberti remarked that buttare is the word of familiar style and gettare that of the noble style used by the most careful writers.^[13] Tommaseo too found it more familiar than gettare, but noted that Dante used it nobly.^[14] Several derivatives are French loans: buttafuori, the stagehand who calls the actors, translates French boute-hors, and buttasella, the trumpet call to saddle up, comes from French boute-selle.^[13] Today the verb has many idioms, as buttare giù (to knock down; to gulp down; to depress) and buttare via (to throw away).^[6][12][15]

Timeline

• 1264 – First record according to Nocentini.^[5]
• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses buttare.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante writes “Là giù il buttò”.^[13]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca has the reflexive buttarsi.^[13]
• 1544 – Bandello uses it for “to waste”.^[13]
• 1561 – Buttasella is recorded in Citolini.^[13]
• Before 1698 – Redi uses it for plants putting out shoots.^[13]
• 1797 – D'Alberti records buttafuori.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To throw, toss or fling, usually without careful aim: Il ragazzo buttò il sasso nel fiume.^[6][15][1]
2. To push or knock (someone) down: Lo hanno buttato a terra.^[6][15]
3. To throw away; by extension, to waste: Non buttare i soldi in sciocchezze.^[6][12][16]
4. (cooking) To put pasta or rice into boiling water: Butto la pasta tra dieci minuti.^[6][12][1]
5. To emit, give out (smoke, water, blood); of a plant, to put out shoots: Il rosmarino ha buttato nuove foglie.^[6][16][1]
6. (intransitive) To tend, turn (towards): Oggi il cielo butta al brutto.^[6][16][1]
7. (colloquial, intransitive) To turn out (well or badly): Vediamo come butta.^[6][1]
8. (reflexive) buttarsi: to throw oneself, jump, dive, (figurative) to throw oneself into an activity: Si è buttata nel lavoro.^[16][15][7]

Word family

• buttata
• buttafuori
• buttasella
• butto
• ributtare
• ributtante
• buttafuoco

Related words

• botta
• bottone
• French bouter

Usage notes

Buttare is the everyday synonym of gettare.^[6][13] Fixed phrases include buttare all'aria (to turn upside down), buttare là (to say casually) and buttare il bambino con l'acqua sporca (to throw the baby out with the bathwater).^[6][12][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 467
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 197
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
8. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 645
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse