chitarra

Forms

chitarra f (plural chitarre)^[1] Forms include Old Italian chitara, Old Italian chiatarra and Old Italian chintara.^[2] Southern Italian also has catarra, and Sicilian citarra.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra), which comes from Ancient Greek κιθάρα (kithára, “lyre, cithara”).^[4][1][5][3] DELI, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli derive it from the Greek word without naming the Arabic step.^[6][7][8] Devoto explains the ⟨-rr-⟩ as an expressive strengthening of the suffix, as in ramarro and gazzarra.^[9]

The inherited doublet is cetra, from Latin cithara, itself borrowed from Greek; most Romance languages continue a Vulgar Latin citera, which the Appendix Probi already corrects.^[1][10] Related forms are Spanish guitarra, Portuguese guitarra, Old French kitaire (13th century) and French guitare (1360).^[3][5] Nocentini says the Spanish word spread to the other European languages.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Cecco Angiolieri of Siena, at the end of the 13th century, for a stringed instrument with fewer strings than the lute and a flat sound box.^[2] DELI dates it from Dante (1304–08) and Giordano da Pisa's Lenten sermons (1305–06).^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word could also mean the ancient Greek cithara, the same as cetra.^[2] Prati suggests that the guitar was brought to Spain by the Arabs and spread from there to France and Italy.^[11] Old Spanish distinguished a guitarra morisca and a guitarra latina.^[5]

The player was quitarista in the Medieval Latin of Perugia in 1462 and chitarrista in Bernardo Davanzati (before 1600); chitarrone, a large instrument of the lute family, follows in the 17th century.^[6] The chitarra hawaiana and the electric guitar belong to the 20th century.^[3][8] In Abruzzo the chitarra is also a frame strung with wires for cutting pasta, which gives spaghetti alla chitarra.^[7][8] Italian passed the word to Modern Greek and Romanian.^[1]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – Cecco Angiolieri has the first record.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses chitarra.^[6]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses it in his Lenten sermons.^[6]
• 1360 – French guitare is recorded.^[3]
• 1462 – Medieval Latin quitarista is recorded at Perugia.^[6]
• Before 1600 – Bernardo Davanzati writes chitarrista.^[6]
• Before 1673 – Chitarrone is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) The guitar: a stringed instrument with a flat, figure-of-eight sound box and a long neck, usually with six strings plucked with the fingers or a plectrum: chitarra classica, chitarra elettrica.^[7][8][12]
2. By extension, a guitarist.^[7]
3. (cooking) A frame strung with metal wires on which sheets of pasta are pressed to cut them into strips, typical of Abruzzo: spaghetti alla chitarra.^[7][8][12]
4. (regional) A frame of slats used to separate olives from their leaves.^[12]

Word family

• chitarrista
• chitarrone
• chitarrino
• chitarrata
• schitarrare

Related words

• cetra
• Latin cithara
• Ancient Greek κιθάρα (kithára)
• Spanish guitarra

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 911
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 814
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 280
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse