lavatore

Forms

lavatore m (plural lavatori, feminine lavatrice)^[1] The TLIO also records Old Italian lavaóre.^[2] The feminine is lavatrice, popularly lavatora.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Late Latin lavātor (“washer”), from its accusative ⟨lavātōrem⟩.^{[6][7][8][4][2]} The Latin agent noun is formed on lavātus (“washed”), the past participle of lavō (“to wash”).^[4][5] Devoto–Oli, Treccani and the GDLI treat it instead as an Italian agent noun, formed from Italian lavare + -tore.^[3][9][10] Wiktionary allows both.^[1] Compare Spanish lavador and French laveur.^[1]

DELI notes that the Latin verb has Indo-European relatives, though the links with the other languages are not certain.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Pisan document of 1288, and the first sense is someone who cleans something with water; a lavatore was also one who washed cloth for a living.^[2] GRADIT and Nocentini date the word from 1309, and DELI records the feminine in 1303.^[7][11][6]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval wool trade the lavatori washed the raw wool: the statute of the wool guild of Siena forbids any lavatore washing in the pools to unload more than one sack at a time.^[10][12] Washers also worked the wool in the Arno, and in mining the word was used for the men who washed the ore.^[12] The feminine lavatrice, recorded in the statutes of Venice of 1342, long meant a washerwoman.^[10][9]

In 1957 the masculine took on a technical sense: an apparatus for cleaning gas by washing it with a liquid.^[6][9] As an adjective it names the raccoon, orsetto lavatore, from the animal's habit of dipping its food in water.^[9][7]

Timeline

• 1288 – A Pisan document has lavatore.^[2]
• 1303 – The feminine is recorded.^[6]
• 1342 – Lavatrice appears in the statutes of Venice.^[10]
• 1957 – The sense “gas scrubber” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who washes, especially a worker in washing operations or one who runs washing machines.^{[7][3][8][4][9]}
2. (technology) A scrubber: an apparatus for purifying gas by washing it in towers or columns.^{[7][3][8][4][1]}

Adjective

1. That washes, as in un operaio lavatore and in orsetto lavatore, the raccoon.^[7][4][9][5]

Related words

• lavare
• lavatrice
• lavatoio
• lavatura
• lavaggio
• Latin lavō

Usage notes

Tommaseo noted that lavatora was not a laundress but a woman who washed particular things, such as lace or gloves.^[10][12] Lavatore is also an Italian surname.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET