ducato

Forms

ducato m (plural ducati)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian ducado, Old Italian ducatu and Old Italian duchato.^[2]

Etymology

DELI, GRADIT and the TLIO take it as from Italian duca + -ato, because Latin ducātus had meant the function of a leader, a military command.^[3][4][5][2] The base duca is a Byzantine form, from the accusative Byzantine Greek δούκα (doúka) of δούξ (doúx), which is dux (“leader”).^[3] Zingarelli, DEI and GDLI call the word a learned borrowing from the Latin, which in Suetonius renders Ancient Greek ἡγεμονία (hēgemonía), and the TLIO allows the Latin for the sense of command.^[6][7][2] Latin formed it with the suffix -ātus.^[8][1]

The Latin word gave Old French duchee, French duché, Old Occitan ducat, Catalan ducat, Spanish ducado and Portuguese ducado.^[9][10] Old Italian ducea and duchea came from the French, and Venetian dogado, the office of the doge, gave Italian dogato.^[9][1]

The coin was named from the word Medieval Latin ducātus in the legend of the first coin of this name, minted at Venice in 1284, according to DELI.^[3] Sabatini–Coletti and GRADIT also derive it from this Medieval Latin word.^[5][4] Others explain it by the image of the doge, the duke of Venice, on the coin.^{[11][6][12][13]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Re Giovanni, before 1237, for the title of a duke: the poet would rather have his lady than the duchy of Gascony.^[3][14] The territory follows in Jacopone, before 1306, and the coin in a Venetian document of 1299.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word also meant command, especially of an army, as in Latin: a text speaks of the ducato di questa guerra, the leadership of this war.^[2][13] Giovanni Villani writes of the duchy of Austria, and Guicciardini of the investiture of the duchy of Milan.^[14]

The coin first named a silver piece minted in Apulia in 1140, then the silver coin of the doge Enrico Dandolo at Venice around 1202, later called grosso, and the gold coin of Giovanni Dandolo of 1284, later called zecchino.^[14][11] Boccaccio has a man send for fifty ducats.^[14] Other Italian and foreign states then minted ducats on the Venetian model.^[11][6]

The coin name spread to the languages of Europe: German Dukaten in 1385 and French ducat in 1395, and English ducat through French.^[15][7] In American slang ducat came to mean money and a ticket.^[15]

Timeline

• Before 1237 – Re Giovanni uses ducato for a duke's title.^[3]
• 1284 – Venice mints the gold coin that gave the coin its name.^[3]
• 1299 – A Venetian document names the coin.^[3][15]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone uses the word for a duke's territory.^[3]
• 1385 – German Dukaten is first recorded.^[15]
• 1395 – French ducat is first recorded.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The title and rank of a duke.^{[4][16][6][17]}
2. The period of a duke's rule.^[4][17]
3. A duchy, the territory ruled by a duke: il ducato di Milano.^[4][6][17]
4. (archaic) command, leadership, especially of an army.^[16][11]
5. (numismatics, historical) A ducat, a gold or silver coin first minted at Venice under the doges, later in other Italian and foreign states.^{[4][16][6][17]}

Word family

• ducatone
• granducato
• arciducato

Related words

• duca
• duce
• doge
• dogato
• Latin ducātus

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 g h i 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 f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1398
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ 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
17. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana