frutto

Forms

frutto m (plural frutti, diminutive frutterèllo or frutticèllo or fruttìno or frutticìno)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fructus (“enjoyment; produce, fruit”), taken from the accusative.^[2][3][4][1] DELI also notes a Late Latin variant frūcta, probably from a neuter plural.^[2] Nocentini treats the word as inherited, while the GDLI calls it learned.^[3][5] Latin already used it for orchard fruit in Cato.^[6]

The word is found across Romance: French fruit, Occitan fruch, Portuguese fruto, Sardinian fruttu and Romanian frupt (“dairy food”).^[3][7] In the sense “offspring” it survives in Friulian frut (“boy”).^[6][7] Latin lent it to the Insular Celtic languages and to Germanic, as in German Frucht.^[6]

The Latin noun is formed from fruor (“to enjoy”) with the suffix of action nouns.^[1][8] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *frūg-je/o- and a root Proto-Indo-European *bʰruHg- (“to use”), noting that the restriction of the root to Germanic and Italic casts some doubt on its age.^[9] Devoto compares German brauchen (“to need, use”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century, where the word means the fruit of a plant.^[11] DELI's first date is about 1224, in Francis of Assisi, with the sense “produce of the earth”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The botanical sense, the part of a plant that holds the seeds, is in Brunetto Latini before 1294.^[2] The figurative senses came early: “effect, consequence” in Guinizelli before 1276, “profit, economic gain” in a Florentine text of 1280, and “product of human work” in Dante (1304–1308).^[2] From Christian Latin, where the fruit of the womb meant the child, Italian used the word for the unborn child and then for offspring in the 14th century, and for a reward in the 16th.^[6]

Old Italian also used the word for a tree that bears fruit, and had phrases such as albero da frutto, a fruit tree, and the proverb that flowers with fruit don't make every tree.^[11] The collective frutta, fruit as food or as a course of a meal, is recorded in 1282 (Restoro d'Arezzo).^[2] Tommaseo noted that the Italian word was wider in meaning than the Latin.^[12]

Derivatives include fruttare (before 1306, Iacopone), fruttifero (Dante), fruttiera (1598), fruttivendolo (1797) and fruttosio (1895).^[2] DELI cites Alessio for the view that fruttivendolo is a southern word modelled on Ancient Greek ὀπωροπώλης (opōropṓlēs, “fruit-seller”), since fructivindulus is found in 12th-century documents from Salerno.^[2]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the word.^[11]
• c. 1224 – Francis of Assisi uses it for the produce of the earth.^[2]
• Before 1276 – Guinizelli uses it for an effect or consequence.^[2]
• 1280 – A Florentine text uses it for economic gain.^[2]
• 1282 – The collective frutta is recorded.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses the botanical sense.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for the product of human activity.^[2]
• 1797 – Fruttivendolo “greengrocer” is recorded.^[2]
• 1895 – Fruttosio “fructose” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) fruit: the ripened ovary of a flowering plant, holding the seeds.^[4][13][14]
2. An edible fruit, such as an apple or a cherry: Ha raccolto un frutto dall'albero.^[4][13][15]
3. (chiefly plural) The produce of the land; the harvest.^[4][14][15]
4. (literary) The child of a pregnancy; offspring.^[4][14][16]
5. (figurative) The result of work or effort, or the product of the mind: Questo libro è il frutto di dieci anni di studio.^[4][15]
6. (figurative) An effect or consequence, good or bad.^[4][14][15]
7. Benefit, advantage.^[4][15]
8. (finance) yield, interest on an investment.^[4][14]
9. (law) A periodic product of a property.^[14]

Word family

• frutteto
• fruttidoro
• fruttifero
• fruttosio
• frutta
• fruttare
• frutticoltura
• fruttiera
• fruttificare
• fruttivendolo
• fruttuoso
• fruttato
• sfruttare
• fruttescenza

Related words

• fruire
• frugale
• Latin fructus
• French fruit

Usage notes

The plural is frutti, but fruit as food in general is the collective frutta.^[1][12] Set phrases include frutto proibito (forbidden fruit), frutti di bosco (berries) and frutti di mare (seafood).^[15][17]

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 j k l m n o p 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1727
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli