Etymologically
Log in

corte

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Italian word corte

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1186, Fabriano document
Inherited from
Latin cohors
Ultimate origin
Latin cohors
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cohors
Italian corte

Pronunciation

Forms

corte f (plural corti)[1] Old Italian forms include chorte, cort and curte.[2] In the north the word is Lombard curt and Piedmontese cort.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cohors (“enclosure, farmyard; troop”), in the contracted form cors that Latin already had.[4][5][6][7][1] The Medieval Latin curtis is a false Latinisation of the Romance word.[5] Italian also has the learned doublet coorte.[4][1][8] The word is pan-Romance: Old French court (now French cour), Occitan cort, Catalan cort, Spanish corte, Portuguese corte, Romanian curte, Friulian cort and Sardinian korte (“sheepfold”).[5][9][10]

The Latin word is formed with co- from the stem of Latin hortus (“enclosure, garden”), whence orto.[5][6][7][1] De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic *kom + Proto-Italic *χorti- and suggests a verbal derivative of Proto-Indo-European *ǵher- (“to take, grab”), with doubt.[11][1]

The meaning moved from “enclosure” to “troop” and “bodyguard”, then to the retinue of a lord and his estate.[4][5] The LEI thinks the Latin sense “retinue of a nobleman” is the base of the feudal court.[9] DEI compares the same development in German Hof.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Fabriano document of 1186.[2] In 1219 the Breve di Montieri uses corte for a feudal estate, the lord's buildings and lands, and early in the 13th century Uguccione da Lodi uses it for a royal court.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian corte named a courtyard or enclosure, a feudal estate, the residence of a king or lord and the people who lived there, the papal court, and also heaven as the corte celeste.[2][9] Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for a courtyard and Brunetto Latini for a body of judges (both before 1294); at the end of the 14th century Ser Giovanni uses it for the retinue of an important person.[4]

The refined manners of court life gave cortese and cortesia, both from Occitan, and corteggiare and fare la corte for paying court to a woman.[5][4] Fare la corte is a loan translation of French faire la cour (1538).[4] Corte dei miracoli is from French cour des miracles, and alta corte and bassa corte from French haute cour and basse-cour.[13][12] In the dialects of the north the word still names a farmyard, a dunghill, a cattle pen and the farmstead itself.[3][14]

Timeline

  • 1186 – Corte is recorded in a Fabriano document.[2]
  • 1219 – The Breve di Montieri uses it for a feudal estate.[4][5]
  • Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses it for a royal court.[4]
  • 1281–1288 – Salimbene writes Medieval Latin curtis for a courtyard.[4]
  • Before 1294 – Guittone uses it for a courtyard, and Brunetto Latini for a court of judges.[4]
  • Late 14th century – Ser Giovanni uses it for a retinue.[4]
  • 1538 – Fare la corte is borrowed from French.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A courtyard inside a building or group of buildings; the yard beside a farmhouse: Le galline razzolavano nella corte.[14][15][8]
  2. (history) The manor of the early Middle Ages, the lord's estate with its dependent holdings; in Lombardy, a farmstead housing several families.[14][15][8]
  3. The residence of a sovereign; the sovereign's family and courtiers; the sovereign and his government: Fu invitato a corte per il ballo di carnevale.[14][15][8]
  4. (figurative) A group of admirers or flatterers around an important person.[14][8][16]
  5. (law) A court, a body of judges: Corte d'appello, Corte costituzionale.[14][8][17]
  6. In Venice, a small square enclosed by houses.[14][18]

Word family

  • cortile
  • cortese
  • cortesia
  • corteggiare
  • corteggiamento
  • corteggiatore
  • corteggio
  • corteo
  • cortigiano
  • cortigiana
  • curtense

Usage notes

Fare la corte a qualcuno means to court someone, or to flatter a powerful person for favours.[17][16] Corte dei miracoli is a squalid haunt of beggars and petty criminals.[17][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 565
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 564
  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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1125
  13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  14. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  15. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  16. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  17. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Corte.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/corte. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·