erto

Forms

erto (feminine erta, masculine plural erti, feminine plural erte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *erctus, the past participle of Vulgar Latin *ērgere, beside classical Latin ērēctus from ērigō (“to raise, set upright”).^[2][3][1][4] DELI and the modern dictionaries treat it as the past participle of ergere.^[5][6][7] The LEI thinks the syncopated infinitive already Latin or Late Latin, perhaps by a shift of stress under the first person singular of the present, stressed on its first syllable.^[8] Devoto sees a crossing with eretto, without which the participle would have ended like sparso and emerso.^[9] That word is the learned borrowing of the same Latin participle.^[1]

The same participle is Catalan ert, Spanish yerto (“stiff”) and Engadine yert (“steep”).^[2][10] The Latin verb is formed from regō (“to guide straight”) with e(x)-.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo, 1282, in Aretine, with the sense “upright; rising steeply”.^[11][5]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian erto also meant figuratively “haughty”, and of an animal “alive”;^[11] per erto meant “upwards”.^[11] Dante used the adjective of the body (before 1313) and the noun erta for a steep climb.^[8][5][2] Petrarch writes ’l sentier m’è troppo erto (“the path is too steep for me”).^[7][12]

The phrase stare all’erta was military: “to stand on a height” to see the enemy coming, hence “to be on guard”.^[5] It is recorded from Pietro Aretino in 1536, and gave allerta and, in 1963, allertare.^[5][2] French alerte and Spanish alerto come from the Italian phrase.^[10][4] Sicilian has irtu.^[8]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses erto.^[5][11]
• Before 1313 – Dante uses erto of the body and erta “steep slope”.^[8][2]
• 1536 – Pietro Aretino uses all’erta “on guard”.^[5][2]
• 1963 – Allertare is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. steep, hard to climb: Il sentiero diventa erto prima del rifugio.^[13][6][7]
2. (literary) upright, raised: a testa erta.^[13][6][7]
3. (figurative, literary) Arduous, difficult.^[13][14]

Word family

• erta
• allerta
• allertare
• ertamente
• ertezza

Related words

• ergere
• eretto
• erigere
• Latin erigo

Usage notes

As an old noun erto meant a slope or a summit;^[15][12] poggiar sull’erto was to stand high or, figuratively, to be sublime.^[15][12] Wiktionary gives both /ˈɛr.to/ and /ˈer.to/.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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 d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli