lavoratore

Forms

lavoratore m (plural lavoratori, feminine lavoratrice)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian laboratore and Old Italian lauradore.^[2] Beside the feminine lavoratrice there is a popular feminine lavoratora.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin laborātor (“worker”), an agent noun from labōrō (“to toil, labour”), the source of lavorare.^[6][3][7][1] GRADIT and Treccani treat it instead as formed in Italian from the verb with the suffix -tore.^[8][9] The Latin verb comes from labor (“toil, labour”).^[6][1]

The same Latin agent noun lies behind Spanish labrador and Portuguese lavrador.^[1] The origin of the Latin noun is unclear: it is often linked, with hesitation, to labō (“to totter”), assuming a shift from “near collapse under a load” to “burden” and “labour”, a link de Vaan finds unconvincing.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the noun to 1273, in Florentine texts, as one who spends physical or mental energy on work in order to make a living; the feminine lavoratrice is recorded at Pisa in 1305.^[11] The GDLI gives the oldest sense as a person of humble condition who did manual work for pay in near-servile dependence on a lord or household, quoting the Florentine accounts of a Donato lavoratore di Simone Baldovini.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Boccaccio the word often means a peasant who works a landlord's farm, a sense the modern dictionaries mark as obsolete.^[12][9][5] Use as an adjective, “who works”, is recorded from 1869 in Tommaseo–Bellini.^[11]

In the language of politics and the trade unions the plural came to mean employees and wage earners as a class.^[8][9] The socialist Inno dei lavoratori was set to music in 1886 by A. Galli to words by F. Turati, and the law of 20 May 1970, no. 300, on workers' rights is known as the Statuto dei lavoratori.^[9] In the textile industry the word also names one of the carding rollers of a carding machine.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 1273 – Lavoratore appears in Florentine texts.^[11][8]
• 1305 – The feminine lavoratrice is recorded at Pisa.^[11]
• 1869 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the adjectival use.^[11][4]
• 1886 – The Inno dei lavoratori is set to music.^[9]
• 1970 – The Statuto dei lavoratori becomes law.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A worker: someone who uses physical or mental energy in a trade or profession to earn a living;^[8][3][5] lavoratore autonomo, a self-employed worker.^[8][3][5]
2. An employee working for pay under someone else's direction, especially in the plural in political and trade-union language.^[8][4][9]
3. A hard worker, someone who works with great diligence.^[8][4][5]
4. (obsolete) A peasant farmer.^[8][5][13]
5. (textiles) One of the carding rollers of a carding machine.^[8][9]

Adjective

1. Working; of the workers: classe lavoratrice, the working class.^[8][5][4]

Related words

• lavorare
• lavoro
• Latin laborator

Usage notes

Common legal and trade-union phrases are lavoratore dipendente or subordinato (an employee working under an employer's direction) and lavoratore autonomo (one who delivers the result of their work to a client without being subordinate).^[8][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8, 858
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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
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 c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana