ghiotto

Forms

ghiotto (feminine ghiotta, masculine plural ghiotti, feminine plural ghiotte)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian giotto, Old Italian iotto, Old Italian glotto and Old Italian ghiutto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *gluttus (“glutton”), an adjective made on Latin gluttō (“glutton”).^[4][1][5] GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Treccani call it Late Latin, and Meyer-Lübke lists it as Latin gluttus (“glutton”).^[6][7][8][9] DELI sets it beside the Latin noun, whose accusative gluttōnem gave ghiottone, and beside a spoken Vulgar Latin *glutturnia (“gluttony”), a remaking of gutturnia from guttur (“throat”), which gave Old Italian ghiottornia; all are popular formations with an expressive double consonant.^[10][9] Zingarelli, Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli derive the word from the Latin word for “throat” itself.^[11][12][13] The GDLI sees it instead as a shortening of the noun, felt as an augmentative.^[3]

The same Latin word is Old French glot, Occitan glot and Catalan glot.^[4][9][14] The longer form gave French glouton, the source of the English word glutton.^[1][9]

The Latin noun is related to gluttiō (“to swallow”), from which come deglutire and inghiottire.^[4][1][15] Nocentini connects these forms with gula (“throat”) and with Russian глотка (glotka, “throat”).^[4][1] De Vaan notes the possible stem Proto-Slavic *glъtъ (“gullet”) but, since ingluviēs (“gullet”) lacks the /t/, takes the family for a sound-imitating formation.^[16][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur of the late 12th century.^[2] DELI's first date, about 1225, is from Garzo: Taverna fa putta / femmina ghiotta (the tavern makes a greedy woman a whore), where the word means greedy for food and drink.^[10][17]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used ghiotto of people and animals greedy for food, and early on also of the food itself, “appetising”, as in Folgore da San Gimignano.^[10][2] Dante extended it to any eager desire: Vinse paura la mia buona voglia / che di loro abbracciar mi facea ghiotto (my wish to embrace them, which made me eager, overcame my fear).^[10][8] In the 14th century it also meant a wicked man, a rogue;^[2][11][18] Zingarelli marks this sense obsolete.^[2][11][18] An old proverb, l'una si pensa l'oste e l'altra il ghiotto, said that one acts without weighing the consequences.^[2]

Boccaccio calls Ciacco uomo ghiottissimo.^[17] Derived words followed: ghiottornia (before 1484) and ghiottoneria (before 1685), and ghiotta, the dripping pan under a roast (before 1548).^[10] Ghiottone as the name of the wolverine is a calque of French glouton (1764).^[10] Today a piece of news can be ghiotta, of great interest.^[6][1]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur have the word.^[2]
• c. 1225 – Garzo uses ghiotta “greedy”.^[10]
• 13th century – Folgore da San Gimignano uses it of tasty food.^[10]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “eager, desirous”.^[10]
• 14th century – Ghiottone appears in the Libro di Sydrac.^[10]
• 1772 – Ghiottone is used for the wolverine, after French glouton.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Greedy for food or drink, fond of particular foods: Il mio cane è ghiotto di formaggio.^[6][7][11]
2. (figurative) Eager, avid for something: ghiotto di potere.^[6][12][11]
3. (figurative) Keenly interested in something: Era ghiotta di romanzi d'avventura.^[6][7][11]
4. Of food, appetising, tempting.^[6][7][19]
5. (figurative) Arousing curiosity or interest: una scoperta ghiotta per i cronisti.^[6][7][19]
6. (obsolete) Wicked; a rogue.^[11][13][2]

Word family

• ghiottone
• ghiottoneria
• ghiotta
• ghiottamente
• inghiottonire

Related words

• inghiottire
• deglutire
• gola
• French glouton
• Latin gluttō

Usage notes

Ghiotto and goloso are synonyms.^[11][12] The object of the desire is introduced with di: ghiotto di castagne.^[12][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
15. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
17. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 740
18. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 498
19. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana