cotanto

Forms

cotanto (feminine cotanta, masculine plural cotanti, feminine plural cotante)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian contanto, Old Italian chotanto and Old Italian cotant.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *(ec)cu(m) tantu(m) (“behold, so much”), a phrase of Latin eccum (“here he is”) and tantus (“so great”).^[3][4][5][1] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli gloss the phrase as “just so great”.^[4][6] The same first part is found in cotesto, as Tommaseo noted.^[7] He rejected a derivation from Latin aequē (“equally”) and the same adjective.^[7]

The Latin word is ecce (“behold”) with, probably, an old accusative of hic (“this”).^[8] Wiktionary explains it instead as a contraction of a phrase meaning “see him here”.^[1] Of the Romance languages only Italian continues it regularly, in ecco.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, from the last quarter of the 12th century.^[2] DELI's earliest example is the adverb “so much, so very”, in Giacomo da Lentini before 1250.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective “so great” follows in Bonagiunta before 1257, and the neuter pronoun “this alone” in Malispini in the 13th century.^[3] The GDLI quotes Bonagiunta: the flowers appear for “our loves, which are so many” (che son cotanti).^[10] In Old Italian the word also meant “for so long”, could mark a sum in accounts, multiplied a numeral, and formed the conjunction a cotanto che “provided that”.^[2]

Dante has fra cotanto senno “among so much wisdom”.^[11] Tommaseo called it a stronger tanto that the spoken language did not use.^[7] Today it is only literary, and is often used ironically, of something too grand.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the word, the first record.^[2]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses the adverb.^[3][5]
• Before 1257 – Bonagiunta uses the adjective “so great”.^[3]
• 13th century – Malispini uses the pronoun “this alone”.^[3]

Meanings

Determiner

1. (literary) So much, so great, so important; in the plural, so many.^{[5][12][13][1]}

Pronoun

1. (literary, archaic) This alone, just so much.^{[5][12][14][1]}

Adverb

1. (literary) So much, to such an extent; also in correlation with quanto, come or che.^{[5][12][15][1]}
2. (literary) For so long.^[5][13][1]

Related words

• tanto
• ecco
• cotesto
• Latin eccum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 142
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3
11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli