corto

Forms

corto (feminine corta, masculine plural corti, feminine plural corte, superlative cortissimo)^[1] An old and regional form is Old Italian curto.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin curtus (“docked, shortened, mutilated”).^[5][6][7][1] The word is panromance: French court, Occitan cort, Catalan curt, Spanish corto, Portuguese curto, Sardinian curtu and Romanian scurt.^[6][8] The ⟨s-⟩ of the Romanian word and of Italian scorto comes from the verb Vulgar Latin *excurtiō.^[8] Latin also gave German kurz, borrowed in imperial times.^[6]

Prati notes that the form ⟨curto⟩, used by Petrarch, Ariosto and Carducci, belongs to Lazio, Umbria and most of northern Italy, and points to a popular Latin form with a long vowel.^[4] Meyer-Lübke too records the vowel ⟨u⟩ in northern Italian, Friulian and Dalmatian, as well as in Catalan and Portuguese.^[8]

The Latin adjective is an old participle.^[6] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *korto- and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥-to- (“cut off”), connecting it with the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to shave, scratch off”), while others prefer a root meaning “to cut”.^[9] Nocentini compares Lithuanian skursti (“to be poor”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Giacomo da Lentini (about 1230–1250), in a Tuscan copy; its first sense is “of little length”.^[10] DELI's first dated use is in Ristoro d'Arezzo (1282), who says that one plant is long and another short (tale è longa e tale è corta).^[5][11]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used corto of length, of clothes that leave the legs bare, and of things that fall short; figuratively of people with narrow views, and of short time, so that viver corto was earthly life.^[10] The sense “scarce, insufficient” is in Davanzati in the 13th century.^[5] As an adverb it meant “briefly” and “quickly”: a line of Dante's Purgatory asks to be shown which way leads più corto, more quickly, to the stair.^[12][13]

Modern phrases include essere a corto di “to be short of”, tagliare corto “to cut it short” and settimana corta, the five-day working week.^[14][3] The compounds corto circuito (1899), perhaps a calque of French court-circuit, and cortometraggio “short film” (1933 or 1939) gave the clipped nouns corto.^[5][6]

Timeline

• About 1230–1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses corto.^[10]
• 13th century – Davanzati uses it for “scarce, insufficient”.^[5]
• 1282 – Ristoro d'Arezzo uses it of short plants.^[5]
• 1304–1308 – Cortezza “shortness” appears in Dante.^[5]
• 1899 – Corto circuito is recorded.^[5]
• 1933 – Cortometraggio is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. short, of little length or shorter than usual: capelli corti; of clothes, ending above the knee or elbow: pantaloni corti.^[7][2][3]
2. Of a shot or throw, falling short of the target: tiro corto.^[7][3]
3. Of a person, short and stocky.^[7][14]
4. brief, of short duration: una lezione corta;^[7][14][3] settimana corta, the five-day working week.^[7][14][3]
5. Lacking, poor, insufficient: corto di memoria, forgetful;^[7][14][3] corto di vista, short-sighted;^[7][14][3] essere a corto di benzina, to be short of petrol.^[7][14][3]
6. (figurative) Of a person, slow-witted or narrow-minded.^[7]
7. Of a coffee or decoction, concentrated, ristretto.^[14]

Adverb

1. tagliare corto, to cut short, to come to the point.^[14][3][15]
2. (archaic) Briefly; quickly.^[16][3]

Word family

• cortezza
• cortocircuito
• cortometraggio
• scortare
• raccortare
• ultracorto

Related words

• decurtare
• Latin curtus
• French court

Usage notes

Corto is also a masculine noun, a clipping of cortocircuito “short circuit” (andare in corto) and of cortometraggio “short film”.^[7][14][15] The proverb le bugie hanno le gambe corte says that lies are soon found out.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 866
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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 d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 868