lavatoio

Forms

lavatoio m (plural lavatoi)^[1] The older form is Old Italian lavatorio.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin lavātōrium (“washing vessel”), recorded in Cassiodorus, with the Tuscan treatment of the Latin ending.^[1][5][3][6] Zingarelli calls it a learned word.^[7] The Latin noun is formed on lavō (“to wash”) with the suffix -tōrium.^[1][8]

The same Latin word gave French lavoir, Old Occitan lavador, Spanish lavadero and Portuguese lavadouro.^[6][3] De Vaan traces lavō to Proto-Indo-European *(le-)louh₃- (“to wash”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Pisan document of 1288, of a building where cloth or hides were washed.^[2] Shortly before, the Medieval Latin of Salimbene had lavatorium equorum, a place for washing horses (1281–1288).^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian a lavatoio could also be, figuratively, a cleansing of the soul from sin, a name for Purgatory, and a liturgical vessel.^[2] The translation of St Jerome compares teeth to “flocks of shorn sheep which came up from the lavatorio”.^[4] Biringuccio and later writers use it for the tanks in which ore or wool was washed.^[4]

The sense of a tub in which washing is soaked is dated before 1617, in Baldi.^[10] Public washhouses with stone basins are still in use in some country towns.^[11][12] English lavatory, from the Latin word, came back into Italian and French in the 20th century as a word for a toilet.^[3]

Timeline

• 1281–1288 – Salimbene writes Medieval Latin lavatorium.^[10]
• 1288 – A Pisan document records the Italian word.^[2]
• Before 1617 – Bernardino Baldi uses it of a washtub.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A washhouse: a public or private place, often under a roof, fitted with basins for washing clothes by hand: Le donne del paese si trovavano al lavatoio.^[13][8][14]
2. A washtub: a basin in which clothes are washed by hand, usually with a sloping board for scrubbing.^[13][8][12]
3. A washboard: a wooden board or stone slab on which clothes are rubbed and wrung.^[13][8][15]

Related words

• lavare
• latrina
• Latin lavō
• French lavoir

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2187
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli