caduta

Forms

caduta f (plural cadute)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian chaduta and Old Italian cagiude.^[2] In the northern dialects Old Venetian had caçuda (13th century), modern Venetian has cazùa, and Genoese has ké̜yta.^[3]

Etymology

It is a noun formed from the feminine past participle of cadere (“to fall”), with the ending -uta.^[4][5][6][1] Devoto explains the participle caduto as from Vulgar Latin *cadūtus, built on a new perfect *caduī (Italian caddi), which was itself formed on the infinitive *cadēre.^[7] The verb comes from Latin cadō (“to fall”), which in spoken Latin passed from the third to the second conjugation.^[4][5][3]

Spanish caída is the same kind of formation, a feminine participle used as a noun meaning “fall”.^[8] The Latin verb has only scattered comparisons outside Latin, such as Sanskrit शशाद (śaśāda, “has fallen”), because words for “fall” are often renewed, as French tomber and Italian cascare show.^[5] DELI calls the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *kad- unclear.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Florentine Fiori di filosafi of 1271–1275,^[2] and DELI's first dated example, spelled chaduta, is from a Florentine text of 1288.^[4] The sense was the act or result of falling.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word covered the fall of a body under its own weight, the point where a river drops steeply, the setting of the sun, the collapse of a building, and in a figurative sense death or the loss of a good position.^[2] Giovanni Villani tells of a king who died of a fall when a pig ran between his horse's legs, and Boccaccio's Andreuccio comes to no harm nella caduta (“in the fall”).^[9][10]

The political sense, the surrender of a city or the end of a government, is first dated before 1685 in Daniello Bartoli.^[4][11] In religious language the word names the fall of Adam and Eve, original sin.^[6][12] Physics adopted caduta dei gravi, the free fall of bodies under gravity, which Tommaseo already gave as the proper scientific term,^[10] and electrical engineering caduta di tensione, a voltage drop.^[11][13] In the modern language the figurative sense of a sharp fall in prices, temperature or attention is common.^[6][1] A proverb recorded by Tommaseo says that a relapse is worse than the first fall (la ricaduta è peggio della caduta).^[10]

Timeline

• 1271–1275 – The word appears in the Florentine Fiori di filosafi.^[2]
• 1288 – The spelling chaduta appears in a Florentine text.^[4]
• 14th century – Giovanni Villani and Boccaccio use caduta for a fall from a horse or from a height.^[9][10]
• Before 1685 – Daniello Bartoli uses it for the surrender of a city and the fall of a power.^[4][11]
• 19th century – Tommaseo records caduta de' gravi as the scientific term for the fall of bodies.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or result of falling: the fall of an object, of rain or leaves, or of a person to the ground, often by accident: Si è rotto il polso in una caduta dalla bicicletta.^[6][12][14]
2. Natural loss or shedding, of hair, teeth or leaves.^[6][12][13]
3. A drop in level of a watercourse; a waterfall (caduta d'acqua).^[6][11][15]
4. The collapse of a wall or a structure.^[6][11]
5. (figurative) The end of a power or a regime, or the surrender of a besieged city: Dopo la caduta del governo si votò di nuovo.^[6][12][13]
6. (figurative) A failure, especially of a play or a performer.^[6][12][15]
7. (religion) Sin, especially the fall of Adam and Eve.^[6][12][13]
8. (figurative) A sharp decrease: una caduta dei prezzi, una caduta di temperatura.^[6][14][1]
9. (physics) In technical phrases: caduta libera (free fall), caduta di tensione (voltage drop).^[6][11][13]
10. (nautical) The vertical edge of a sail.^[14][11][13]

Word family

• anticaduta

Related words

• cadere
• caduto
• ricaduta
• Latin cado

Usage notes

In caduta libera is also used figuratively of something collapsing fast, such as prices or popularity.^[11] The masculine participle used as a noun, caduto, means someone killed in war or in the line of duty.^[14][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9, 408
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c 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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d e f 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 Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli