fritto

Forms

fritto (feminine fritta, masculine plural fritti, feminine plural fritte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin frīctus (“roasted, fried”), the past participle of frīgō (“to roast”), and it serves as the past participle of friggere, which continues the Latin verb.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The noun is the participle used as a noun.^[4][6]

The verb is found in every Romance language: French frire, Catalan fregir, Spanish freír, Portuguese frigir and Romanian frige.^[3] DELI calls the Latin verb onomatopoeic, and Nocentini compares Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrúgō, “to roast”), explaining it from the crackling of meat over a flame.^[2][3] De Vaan notes that the Greek verb is very close in form and meaning but cannot be matched by sound laws, so the Latin verb may be a loanword, from Greek or from a third language.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the adjective, cooked in a pan in boiling oil or fat, from 1310, in Z. Bencivenni.^[2] The TLIO's first record is in the Florentine Ottimo commento on Dante's Purgatorio, of 1334.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the participle as a noun, a dish of fried food.^[8] DELI dates this noun from Savonarola's De regimine, before 1460, in the form frito, and the form fritto from 1554, in G. B. Ramusio.^[2] Boccaccio's Decameron serves pesce d'Arno fritto (“fried fish from the Arno”).^[9][10]

The figurative sense, done for, ruined, is dated by DELI from L. Magalotti, before 1712.^[2] Tommaseo records cose fritte e rifritte, things said over and over, and the noun used for the smell food takes on from greasy pans.^[10] The phrase aria fritta, empty talk, is more recent.^[11]

Timeline

• 1310 – Z. Bencivenni uses fritto of food.^[2]
• 1334 – The Ottimo commento uses fritto.^[8][3]
• Before 1460 – The noun frito appears in Savonarola's De regimine.^[2]
• 1554 – G. B. Ramusio uses the noun fritto.^[2]
• Before 1712 – L. Magalotti uses the word for someone done for.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. fried: cooked in boiling oil, butter or other fat: Per cena c'erano zucchine fritte.^{[12][6][13][1]}
2. (figurative, colloquial) Done for, ruined: siamo fritti, essere bell'e fritto.^{[12][6][14][11]}

Noun

1. A dish of fried food, frittura: un fritto di calamari. Fritto misto is a mixed fry of meat, fish or vegetables, and figuratively a muddled mixture.^{[12][6][11][15][1]}
2. The smell or taste of fried food.^[6][13][14]

Word family

• frittata
• frittella
• frittura
• frittume
• frittaglia

Related words

• friggere
• rifritto
• Latin frīctus

Usage notes

Common phrases: fritto e rifritto, said over and over;^[6][14][11] aria fritta, empty talk or groundless promises;^[6][14][11] essere fritto or bell'e fritto, to be done for.^[6][14][11]

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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1720
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 191
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 369
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli