Etymologically
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ladro

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Pronunciation

Forms

ladro m (plural ladri, feminine ladra)[1] Old forms include Old Italian latro, Old Italian laro, Old Italian lar, Old Italian lairo and Old Italian laire.[2] The feminine is ladra.[1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin latro (“highwayman, robber”), continued in the nominative (or, as Bonfante held, the vocative) form, not in the accusative, which gave the doublet ladrone.[4][5][6][1] The voiced /d/ in place of /t/ shows that the word spread from the northern dialects;[4][6][7] GDLI calls it a learned word.[4][6][7] In Latin the word gradually replaced Latin fur (“thief”) in the sense “thief”.[4][7] The same word is French larron (Old French lerre, larron), Old Occitan laire, lairon, Catalan lladre, Spanish ladrón and Portuguese ladrão;[5][8][9] Romance has both nominative and accusative forms.[5][8][9]

The Latin word first meant “mercenary soldier”, a borrowing of an institution unknown at Rome, and came down to “highway robber”.[4][5] Nocentini takes it from Ancient Greek λάτρον (látron, “pay, hire”) and λατρεύς (latreús, “hired servant”); the OLD thinks of an unrecorded *λάτρων (*látrōn), and Beekes, who sees the Greek words as Pre-Greek, also derives the Latin from such an unrecorded form.[5][10][1] Others connect the Greek words with Proto-Indo-European *leh₂t- (“to grant; to possess”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Libro of Uguccione da Lodi, of Cremona, from the early 13th century;[2][4] DELI cites Paolo Zoppo, also of the 13th century.[2][4] The sense is the one it still has: someone who takes what belongs to others, by stealth or by force.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used ladro for the two thieves crucified with Christ, ladro di mare for a pirate, and the cry al ladro!, “stop thief!”.[2] The adjective “thieving” is in Boccaccio (before 1375), and figuratively ladro meant “wicked” and, of eyes, “seductive”; the sense “very bad” is from the 14th century.[4][2] Dante's thieves are in the eighth circle: “ladro a la sagrestia d'i belli arredi” (“a thief of the sacristy's fine furnishings”, Inferno 24).[7] Writers who imitated Latin still kept apart the ladro, who comes in secret, and the ladrone, who robs in the open country (Segneri, 1686).[4]

Ladro in guanti gialli, a thief with the look of a gentleman, is often credited to Giusti, but DELI shows that he wrote martire in guanti gialli (1846), on which many similar phrases were made.[4] Tuscan ladra is an inside pocket of a jacket (1863), and ladro a stray bit of wick that makes a candle burn down on one side.[4][11][6]

Timeline

  • Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses ladro.[2]
  • 13th century – Paolo Zoppo uses it.[4]
  • Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses ladro as an adjective.[4]
  • 14th century – The figurative sense “very bad” is recorded.[4]
  • 1846 – Giusti coins martire in guanti gialli, the model for ladro in guanti gialli.[4]
  • 1863 – Ladra “inside pocket” is recorded.[4]
  • 1882 – Carducci uses ladruncolo “petty thief”.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A thief, someone who steals: I ladri sono entrati dalla finestra del bagno.[11][12][6]
  2. (by extension) Someone who gets rich dishonestly at others' expense, or who charges far too much: Quel meccanico è un ladro![11][12][6]
  3. (Tuscan) A bit of wick that falls on the candle and makes it burn down on one side.[11][6][3]
  4. (printing) A scrap of paper caught between the forme and the sheet, which leaves part of the page unprinted.[11]

Adjective

  1. Thieving, dishonest: un socio ladro.[11][3][13]
  2. (figurative) Very bad, wretched (of weather and the like).[3][14][4]

Word family

  • ladra
  • ladresco
  • ladruncolo
  • ladreria
  • ladramente
  • ladrone
  • ladrocinio
  • latrocinio
  • Latin latro
  • French larron

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include ladro di galline (a petty thief), ladro di cuori (a heartbreaker), tempo da ladri (foul weather), guardie e ladri (cops and robbers) and the proverb l'occasione fa l'uomo ladro (“opportunity makes the thief”).[12][3][13][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ 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, p. 8, 686
  8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli