gavetta

Forms

gavetta f (plural gavette)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin gabata (“dish, bowl”), with a change of suffix and of stress that the sources explain in different ways.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DELI sees the diminutive suffix -etta, through *gavitetta, or else the shift of stress from the third-last to the second-last syllable that is also found in Occitan words.^[2] Nocentini starts from an altered Vulgar Latin *gavĭtta, and Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti from the diminutive of a popular form *gabĭta.^[3][6][7][8] GRADIT points to Medieval Latin gabettus (“vessel”), recorded in 1295, with the same feminine suffix.^[9] That Medieval Latin form is found in an English document.^[10][11]

DEI instead traces it to Occitan gaveda, which became gavedo by a shift of stress and gaveto by a change of suffix.^[12] From there came Old Piedmontese gaveita (“basin; chamber pot”), which passed into Italian.^[12]

The Latin noun survives in French jatte (“bowl”) and in southern dialect forms such as Sicilian gavita (“lime bucket”).^[13][3] With the same change of suffix, Spanish gaveta and Portuguese gaveta mean “drawer”.^[13][3][1] DEI and Wiktionary take the Spanish word from Italian.^[12][1]

The Latin word, recorded from the 1st century AD (Martial), is a popular loan of unknown origin.^[3][14][2] It is compared with Ancient Greek γαβαθόν (gabathón) in Hesychius and Byzantine Greek γαβάθα (gabátha, “basin”).^[3][14][1] Isidore explained it from cavus (“hollow”), a folk etymology that shows the stress had already moved in popular speech.^[10][1] Wiktionary suggests a Semitic source, comparing Biblical Hebrew קֻבַּעַת (qubbáʿaṯ, “cup, goblet”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Francesco Balducci Pegolotti's merchant handbook, before 1347, where grain is measured with gavette: a kind of vessel.^[2][15][10]

Semantic evolution

In 1612 Falconi lists gavette di legno (“wooden bowls”) among kitchen goods.^[10][16] On ships the word named the large wooden bowl from which sailors, and in the 17th century galley convicts, ate together.^[12][10] DEI also records it for a group of sailors, usually seven, eating from one bowl, a group of seven papal horsemen on guard, and a group of soldiers.^[12][10]

The modern sense is the soldier's aluminium mess tin.^[10][9] From it comes venire dalla gavetta, said of officers who rose from the ranks rather than through the military schools, and then of anyone who started at the bottom.^[4][5] Prati records that in Rome it was said of a man of the people who reached a distinguished position.^[11] The colloquial fare la gavetta now means a long, hard apprenticeship in a subordinate role.^[9][6][17]

The augmentative gavettone meant “trough” in Florio (1598) and a large container for the troops' food in 1922.^[2]

Timeline

• 1295 – Medieval Latin gabettis (plural) appears in a document from England.^[10][11]
• Before 1347 – Pegolotti uses gavetta for a measuring vessel.^[2][15]
• 1598 – Florio records gavettone “trough”.^[2]
• 1612 – Falconi lists wooden gavette among kitchen goods.^[2][10]
• 1922 – Zingarelli records gavettone for the soldiers' food container.^[2]
• 1965 – Gavettino is recorded, in G. Cassieri.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) A mess tin: an aluminium container with a handle and lid, in which soldiers receive and eat their ration in the field.^{[9][4][7][5][1]}
2. (historical, nautical) A large wooden bowl from which sailors or galley convicts ate.^[10][12]
3. (figurative, colloquial) The time spent in the ranks as a private soldier.^[9]
4. (by extension, colloquial) A long, hard apprenticeship in a subordinate role before promotion: Ha fatto dieci anni di gavetta in redazione.^{[9][6][17][1]}
5. (architecture) In volta a gavetta, a vault obtained by cutting a cloister vault with a horizontal plane.^[5][9]

Word family

• gavettino
• gavettone

Related words

• Latin gabata
• French jatte
• Spanish gaveta

Usage notes

Venire dalla gavetta and fare la gavetta are set phrases: to have risen from the bottom, and to serve a hard apprenticeship.^[4][17][18]

Gavetta is also a technical word for a small skein of textile fibres used to make cords, the fine iron wire with which goldsmiths hold pieces together for soldering, and gold thread drawn from the first die.^[9][6] GRADIT dates it before 1442 and derives it, perhaps, from Late Latin scabellum “skein” with the suffix -etta.^[9] Devoto–Oli instead starts from Medieval Latin gavecta, probably from a word for rope.^[9][6] French borrowed it as gavette in 1730.^[19]

A third gavetta is a 20th-century name of the goosander, from Latin gavia (“gull”) with the same suffix.^[9] DEI records it as a popular name of a merganser around Parma.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ 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)
6. ^ a b c d e 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 487
12. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1775
13. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it