colto

Forms

colto (feminine colta, masculine plural colti, feminine plural colte, superlative coltissimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cultus (“tilled, tended; refined”), the past participle of colō (“to till, cultivate; to tend; to worship”), used as an adjective.^[2][3][1] DEI and the GDLI call it a semi-learned word; its doublet is the learned culto.^[4][1] The LEI treats the adjective under its entry for colō, where it sets the inherited type with ⟨o⟩ apart from the learned type with ⟨u⟩, and compares Old Occitan cout and the verb Old French colter (“to cultivate”).^[5]

In Latin, “cultus” already meant both “tilled, tended” and “refined, educated”.^[2] The verb colō goes back to Proto-Italic and to the root Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to turn, go round”), the root of Ancient Greek πέλομαι (pélomai, “to move, be”).^[6][1] The vowel /o/ of colō became /u/ before ⟨l⟩ and a consonant, which gave the participle cultus.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Corsican document of 1220, and the word is in the letters of Guittone d'Arezzo, who died in 1294, where God's seed is sown in a field “well tilled” (nel campo ben colto).^[7][8][9] The first sense is “cultivated, well tended”, said of land and plants.^[9][7]

Semantic evolution

From the start the adjective was also a noun, colto “a tilled field”: Guittone uses it figuratively, and Boccaccio's Decameron has peasants dying “on the roads and in their fields” (per le vie o per li loro cólti).^[8][7] Dante writes of the luoghi colti between Cecina and Corneto, the farmed land that the wild beasts avoid.^[8][10]

The figurative sense “educated, instructed” is dated by DELI to Filippo Villani, before 1405, and the TLIO already lists a sense “educated, refined in manners” in Old Italian.^[9][7] This is now the main sense, while “cultivated” for land has become uncommon or literary.^[3][11][12] An old participial sense, “honoured, worshipped”, after Latin cultus, is found in Annibal Caro's Aeneid translation and is now obsolete.^[13][10]

In the 19th century colto pubblico e inclita guarnigione, “cultured public and illustrious garrison”, was a stock opening of the speeches addressed to theatre audiences; shortened to il colto e l'inclita it is now used only in jest.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1220 – A Corsican document is the TLIO's first record of colto.^[7]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses colto for well-tilled land.^[9][8]
• c. 1319 – Dante's Commedia has luoghi colti, farmed land.^[5][8]
• Before 1405 – Filippo Villani uses colto for an educated person.^[9]
• 19th century – Colto pubblico e inclita guarnigione becomes a stock formula of showmen.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. educated, cultured: having a broad knowledge gained by study: Sua nonna era una signora coltissima.^[3][11][12]
2. Showing or belonging to learning and culture: un vocabolo colto, a learned word.^[3][11][15]
3. (uncommon) Cultivated, tilled (of land or plants).^[3][11][15]
4. (archaic, literary) Honoured, worshipped.^[3][11][12]

Noun

1. (literary) A cultivated field, tilled land.^[3][15][1]
2. An educated person.^[12][15][14]

Word family

• incolto
• semicolto

Related words

• culto
• coltivare
• coltura
• Latin colō

Usage notes

Colto with a closed /o/ is this adjective;^[15][11][9] colto with an open /ɔ/ is the past participle of cogliere “to pick, to catch” (un fiore colto, colto sul fatto), from a different Latin verb.^[15][11][9] GRADIT and Zingarelli also list a literary colto that is only a variant of the noun culto “worship”: Dante uses it in the Paradiso.^[3][14][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1023
5. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 707
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana