contratto

Forms

contratto m (plural contratti)^[1] The adjective and past participle of contrarre is contratto (feminine contratta, plural contratti, contratte).^[1] Old forms include Old Italian contracto, Old Italian contrato and the southern Old Italian cuntractu.^[2]

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Latin contractus (“a drawing together; an agreement”), a noun of the fourth declension formed from contrahō (“to draw together; to conclude (a bargain)”).^[3][4][5][1] DEI calls it a learned word, and Körting a half-learned one found across the Romance languages.^[6][7] The same Latin noun gave French contrat (14th century), Spanish contrato and Portuguese contrato.^[4][6][7]

The adjective is the past participle of contrarre, from the Latin participle contractus (“drawn together”).^[6][8][9] In Old French that participle survived as Old French contrait (“paralysed”), and it is Old Occitan contrach, Spanish contrecho and Portuguese contreito with the sense “crippled”.^[10][6] The Latin verb is con- with trahō (“to drag, pull”), whose further origin is unclear.^[1][11]

The bridge sense came through English contract.^[8][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record of the noun is the Sienese Mattasalà di Spinello (1233–1243), in the legal sense of an agreement between two or more people that creates, changes or ends a legal relationship over property.^[3][5] The TLIO's first text is the Cremonese poet Ugo di Perso, of the first half of the 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for the written deed as well as the agreement, and had fixed phrases for usurious and emphyteutic contracts and for the tax levied on contracts.^[2] Giovanni Villani writes of carrying out i contratti della pace, the terms of a peace treaty.^[13] The adjective, “agreed, stipulated”, is recorded in Villani (before 1348), and “acquired, caught” (infermità contratta) in Guicciardini (before 1540).^[3][14]

Modern Italian has a large set of legal and labour terms: the contratto collettivo fixed between unions and employers, the contratto a termine for a fixed period, and many others.^[5][9][15] The contratto sociale of political philosophy translates Rousseau's Contrat social (1762).^[9][13] Turkish took the word from Italian as Turkish kontrato.^[6]

Timeline

• 1233–1243 – The Sienese Mattasalà di Spinello has contratto “agreement”.^[3]
• 14th century – Contrattare and contrattamento are recorded.^[6][4]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses the adjective “agreed”.^[3]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses contratto “acquired (of an illness)”.^[3][14]
• 16th century – Contrattazione is recorded.^[4]
• 1762 – Rousseau's Contrat social gives Italian contratto sociale.^[9]
• Before 1869 – Contrattuale is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A contract: an agreement between two or more parties that creates, changes or ends a legal relationship, and the document containing it: Prima di firmare il contratto d'affitto, leggi bene ogni clausola.^{[5][8][12][1]}
2. An agreement, a pact, contratto collettivo, a collective labour agreement.^[5][9][13]
3. (bridge) The number of tricks a player or pair undertakes to win.^[5][8][12]

Adjective

1. contracted, tense, drawn: Aveva le mascelle contratte per la rabbia.^{[8][12][9][1]}
2. (linguistics) Of a vowel or word form, resulting from contrazione.^[5][12][9]

Word family

• contrattare
• contrattazione
• contrattuale
• contrattista
• precontratto

Related words

• contrarre
• contrattile
• contrattura
• contrazione
• Latin contractus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1082
7. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
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. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli