fiotto

Forms

fiotto m (plural fiotti)^[1] The Old Italian forms include fioto and the feminine fiotta.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin flūctus (“wave, surge”), the popular form beside the learned doublet flutto.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed from fluō (“to flow”) with the suffix -tus.^[6][1][3] Nocentini explains the open /ɔ/ by the pull of the nouns ending in -otto.^[4]

DEI prefers another source: an adaptation of Old French flot “tide”, from a Frankish word related to German Flut, with the Latin noun only influencing it.^[7] Körting had also derived it from the Germanic root of the same word, explaining the double ⟨t⟩ by the influence of the Latin noun.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Brunetto Latini's Tesoretto, written before 1274, where it names the tide of the ocean: the sea “now rises, now falls, and people call it fiotto” (e la gente per motto, / dicon ch'ha nome fiotto).^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian fiotto was the wave or the tide of the sea, often in the phrase fiotto del mare.^[2] Dante uses it for the flood tide that the Flemings hold back with their dikes (temendo 'l fiotto che 'nver' lor s'avventa).^[10][11] It could also mean a band of people acting together, a troop of horsemen, or a flock of animals.^[2] REW records the feminine fiotta “band of armed men”, which passed into Old French as flotte.^[12]

The sense of a sudden gush of liquid is dated before 1294, also from Brunetto Latini.^[3] From the 18th century the word also meant a plaintive grumbling, and this sense survives in Tuscan.^[3][13] The verb fiottare, to surge, later to gurgle and to whine, is recorded from 1348.^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1274 – Brunetto Latini uses fiotto for the tide of the ocean.^[2]
• Before 1294 – The sense “gush of liquid” is recorded.^[3]
• 1348 – The verb fiottare is first recorded.^[5]
• Before 1767 – The sense “plaintive grumbling” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) The surge of the sea's waves, a billow.^[5][10][14]
2. The sound of waves breaking on the shore or on rocks.^[5][15]
3. A sudden, violent gush or spurt of liquid: un fiotto d'acqua uscì dal tubo spaccato.^{[5][11][14][1]}
4. (figurative, literary) A sudden flow or outburst: un fiotto di nostalgia.^[14]
5. (Tuscany, colloquial) grumbling, whining.^[13][11][16]

Word family

• fiottare
• fiottone

Related words

• flutto
• fluire
• Latin flūctus

Usage notes

A fiotti means “in gushes”, and by extension “in great quantity”.^[14][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1652
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6
10. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli