gotta

Forms

gotta f (plural gotte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gutta (“drop”).^[2][3][4][1] The sense comes from medieval medicine, which held that the disease was caused by a drop of a corrupted humour coming down from the brain.^[2][3][5][6] DEI and the GDLI find Medieval Latin gutta for arthritis as early as the Carolingian Tironian miscellanies of the 9th century, and the sense must be old, since Romanian gută means only “gout”.^[7][8][3]

The word is pan-Romance: French goutte, Occitan gota, Catalan gota, Spanish gota, Portuguese gota and Sardinian gutta, and Meyer-Lübke notes that it means “gout” beside “drop” everywhere.^[3][9] In Sardinian it first means a stroke, from the same belief about apoplexy.^[3] In Italian the sense “drop” passed to the derivative goccia, and the base word kept only the medical one.^[3]

The origin of the Latin noun is unknown.^[10][1] It may be related to Old Armenian կաթն (katʻn, “milk”), or connected with Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd- (“to pour”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the 13th-century Fiore (si duole d’una gotta, “he suffers from gout”).^[2][8] In the Detto d’Amore of the same century the word rhymes with its homograph gotta “not at all”: già mai mal non ha gotta / né di ren né di gotta.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian often used the plural, le gotte: Giovanni Villani tells that Corso Donati era infermo di gotte, and Boccaccio's Decameron has the plural too.^[8][11] By the location of the attacks the disease was also called chiragra in the hands, podagra in the feet and gonagra in the knees, as D'Alberti's dictionary put it in 1798.^[2][11] The adjective gottoso is recorded at Lucca in 1336 (as gotosso) and in Bartolomeo da San Concordio before 1347.^[2] Gotta serena, medical Latin gutta serena, was an old name for amaurosis, blamed on a drop of clear humour.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 9th century – Medieval Latin gutta names arthritis in the Miscellanea Tironiana.^[7][8]
• 13th century – Gotta “gout” in the Fiore and the Detto d’Amore.^[2]
• 1336 – Gotosso “gouty” in a document from Lucca.^[2]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses gottoso.^[2]
• 1798 – D'Alberti's dictionary names the forms chiragra, podagra and gonagra.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) gout: a metabolic disease caused by excess uric acid in the blood, with painful attacks of arthritis, especially in the feet, knees and hands.^{[13][14][4][15]}

Word family

• gottoso

Related words

• goccia
• gocciola
• Latin gutta

Usage notes

GRADIT has a second, obsolete gotta “drop” (before 1375), the inherited sense of Latin gutta;^[13][8][16] Boccaccio and Sannazaro use it, and in negative phrases it meant “not at all”, as in Lombard dialect still in Carlo Dossi's non mi comprese ’na gotta.^[13][8][16] The vowel is pronounced closed or open (/ˈɡotta/ or /ˈɡɔtta/).^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1849
8. ^ a b c d e f g Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 519
13. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
14. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli