grato

Forms

grato (feminine grata, masculine plural grati, feminine plural grate, superlative gratissimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin grātus (“pleasing, welcome; thankful”).^[2][3][4][1] DEI calls it a word of non-popular tradition, and Prati one that came in by the literary route.^[5][6]

The neuter of the Latin adjective, used as a noun, grātum (“pleasure, liking”), spread to all the Romance languages except Romanian: Old French gré, Old Occitan grat, Spanish grado.^[5][7] Wiktionary calls Italian grado “liking, will” the inherited doublet of this word, while Meyer-Lübke derived that word from Old Occitan.^[1][7]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *gʷrātos and Proto-Indo-European *gʷr̥Htós (“praised”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to praise, welcome”).^[1][8] DELI and Devoto see in it an old religious term, “praised (in a hymn)”, said first of the gods.^[2][9][3] Cognates are Sanskrit गूर्त (gūrtá, “welcome, approved”) and Lithuanian girtas (“praised”).^[8][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, in the sense “mindful of favours received”: a kindness can turn an ungrateful man conoscente e grato (“appreciative and grateful”).^[2][11] Zingarelli dates the word to 1266.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Dante's Paradiso has Drizza la mente in Dio grata (“turn your mind, grateful, to God”).^[11] The passive sense “welcome, pleasing” is dated to Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–1353), and “to one's taste” to a 14th-century translation of John Chrysostom.^[2]

Gratitudine is recorded before 1348 in Francesco da Barberino;^[2][3] DELI notes that no Latin gratitudo is recorded, though Late Latin ingratitudo makes it likely, while Nocentini takes it from Medieval Latin.^[2][3] In the senses “welcome, pleasant” the word is now much less common than gradito.^[13]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses grato for “grateful”.^[2][11]
• Before 1348 – Gratitudine appears in Francesco da Barberino.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses grato for “welcome, pleasing”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. grateful, thankful (with a, and di or per): Ti sono grato per il passaggio. In polite formulas: Le sarei grato se mi richiamasse.^[4][14][12]
2. (formal) Welcome, appreciated: fare cosa grata, to do something welcome.^[15][14][13]
3. Pleasant to the senses, agreeable: un sapore grato.^[4][16][13]

Word family

• gratitudine
• ingrato
• ingratitudine
• gratamente

Related words

• grazia
• grado
• gratuito
• gratificare
• Latin gratus

Usage notes

An obsolete literary noun grato, “liking, pleasure”, is a variant of grado (as in di buon grato, “willingly”); Dante writes non per mio grato, “not by my will”.^[4][11][17] Tommaseo also records grato for a reed mat in a Sienese document.^[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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1864
6. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 526
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET