lido

Forms

lido m (plural lidi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Venetian lido, from Latin lītus (“shore”): the Venetian popular form, with /t/ voiced to /d/ between vowels as in the northern dialects.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Venetian later reduced it to lio.^[7][8] The literary lito is a learned form taken from Latin;^[2][7] D'Alberti found the Venetian form in prose and the learned one in verse.^[2][7] Wiktionary derives the word directly from Latin.^[1]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain.^[9][10] It has traditionally been linked with Proto-Indo-European *ley- (“to flow”); de Vaan rejects this and prefers Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to go, depart”), with the sense passing from “going away” to “end, side” and so to “shore”.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dante uses the learned lito in the Commedia (1300–1313) and lido only once, in rhyme: the rays dead ne' bassi lidi, on the low shores, in the Purgatorio.^[2][12] The Italian version of Valerius Maximus (14th century) has Demosthenes sitting a' lidi where the waves broke.^[2][13]

Semantic evolution

From the shore the word passed to a land or country in Dante (1313–1319), and in the plural to distant places in general;^[2][9] tornare ai patri lidi, to go home, is listed by Petrocchi in 1891 but echoes Dante's tornate a riveder li vostri liti.^[2][9] In 1581 Francesco Sansovino uses lido for the strip of sand along the coast that, with the coast, closes off a lagoon: Venice is defended to the east by a lido open in seven places.^[2][12]

The name of the Lido of Venice spread to bathing beaches with their establishments, and to place names such as Lido di Camaiore and Lido di Ostia.^[9][14] DEI records lido for a shade of grey in fashion in 1947, after the Lido of Venice.^[8] Other languages took the word first as the name of the Venetian Lido: German in 1728, English in 1673 (with a mention in 1611) and French in 1856;^[15] English lido now also means a public bathing place.^[15]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses lito and, once, lido.^[2]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses the word for “land, country”.^[2]
• 1300s – The Italian Valerius Maximus has lido “shore”.^[2][13]
• 1581 – Francesco Sansovino uses it for the sandbar of a lagoon.^[2]
• 1673 – English Lido is recorded, at first only of Venice.^[15]
• 1728 – German Lido is recorded.^[15]
• 1856 – French lido is recorded.^[15]
• 1891 – Petrocchi lists tornare ai patri lidi.^[2]
• 1947 – Lido names a shade of grey in fashion.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) The shore: the flat strip of land along the sea, washed by the waves.^{[9][16][17][14]}
2. A beach with bathing establishments; a seaside resort, also in place names: Lido di Camaiore.^{[9][16][4][17]}
3. (geology) A deposit of sand and gravel built up along the coast by the waves.^[9][16][14]
4. Each of the strips of land, usually parallel to the coast, that separate a lagoon from the open sea: Lido di Venezia.^[9][16][17]
5. (literary) A land, country or place, often in the plural: tornare ai patri lidi, to go back home.^{[9][16][17][14]}

Related words

• lito
• litorale
• litoraneo
• Latin lītus

Usage notes

Lito is the old and poetic form.^[16][14][18] The GDLI has a separate literary adjective lido “Lydian”, from Latin lydus.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 591
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2227
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli