Etymologically
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gelato

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Pronunciation

  • /d͡ʒeˈla.to/[1]

Forms

gelato (feminine gelata, masculine plural gelati, feminine plural gelate)[1] As a noun, “ice cream”, it is masculine, with the plural gelati.[1][2] Old Italian forms of the participle include gielato, gialato and northern zelao.[3][4]

Etymology

It is the past participle of gelare “to freeze”, used as an adjective and, from the end of the 18th century, as a noun.[5][6][2] The participle continues inherited from Latin gelātus (“frozen”), from gelō (“to freeze”), a verb formed on gelū (“frost, cold”), which also gave Italian gelo.[1][6][5]

The Romance outcomes of the verb are French geler, Occitan gelar, Catalan gelar, Spanish helar and Portuguese gear.[6] DELI calls the formation of the Latin noun unclear but surely Indo-European.[5] Nocentini compares Germanic words for cold: Old English cōl (“cool”), Old High German kuoli (“cool”), cald (“cold”) and kalt (“cold”).[6] Wiktionary traces the family to Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record of the adjective is the Cremonese Libro of Uguccione da Lodi, of the early 13th century, in the sense “frozen, turned to ice”.[3] DELI's first record of the sense “very cold” is in the Italian version of Brunetto Latini.[5] Dante writes of the frozen lake of Cocytus, de' gelati guazzi “of the frozen pools”.[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian gelato described ice and frozen liquids, frost-covered ground, cold seasons and places, a body without warmth, and the cold sweat or numbness of fear; it was also used figuratively of a person without passion or love.[3] The sense “frozen with fear or dismay” is still alive.[2][7][8]

DEI dates ices of the modern kind to the 16th century in Tuscany and says they were brought from there to France.[9] Before the noun gelato, such desserts were called acque gelate (1798) and pezzi gelati.[5][10] The noun is first recorded in Vittorio Alfieri, who died in 1803, and Fanfani in 1863 called it a term of the coffee-house keepers.[5][4] The gelato da passeggio, on a stick or in a cone, is recorded from 1940.[5] Words for the trade followed: gelataio (1893, Pirandello), gelateria (1901) and gelatiera (1939–40).[5]

English took the word as English gelato, recorded by the OED in 1932 (with an earlier example of 1868), French uses the plural gelati, and southern German and Austrian Gefrorenes is a calque of it.[11]

Timeline

  • Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses gelato “frozen”.[3]
  • 1798 – Ices are called acque gelate.[5]
  • Before 1803 – Vittorio Alfieri uses the noun gelato “ice cream”.[5][4]
  • 1863 – Fanfani records gelato as a coffee-house term.[5]
  • 1893 – Pirandello uses gelataio “ice-cream maker or seller”.[5]
  • 1901 – Gelateria “ice-cream shop” is recorded.[5]
  • 1932 – English gelato is recorded by the OED.[11]
  • 1940 – The gelato da passeggio, eaten while walking, is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. frozen, turned to ice; of fruit or vegetables, spoiled by frost: Al mattino il laghetto era gelato.[2][7][8][1]
  2. Very cold, icy: Avevo i piedi gelati dopo la passeggiata.[2][7][8]
  3. (figurative) Of a person, frozen with fear, horror or shock: restare gelato.[2][7][8]

Noun

  1. ice cream: a sweet of milk or cream, sugar and flavourings such as fruit, chocolate or nuts, frozen while being stirred: un gelato al pistacchio.[2][7][8][1]
  2. (loosely) A sorbet.[2]
  3. (television slang) A hand microphone shaped like an ice-cream cone.[7]

Word family

  • gelataio
  • gelateria
  • gelatiera
  • gelatiere
  • gelare
  • gelo
  • gelata
  • gelido
  • surgelato
  • Latin gelū

Usage notes

After a noun gelato is used as an invariable modifier, as in cono gelato and torta gelato, an ice-cream cake.[7][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  4. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1779
  10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 489
  11. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it