lontra

Forms

lontra f (plural lontre)^[1] Wiktionary lists the variants lontro, londra, ondra and ontria; the Sienese dialect had londra.^[1][2] The word is Venetian lodra in Venice.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lutra (“otter”), through a spoken Latin variant.^[5][6][1] Most sources explain the ⟨n⟩ by the influence of the Greek word for the otter, Ancient Greek ἐνυδρίς (enudrís, “otter, water snake”), literally “living in water”, from ὕδωρ (húdōr, “water”).^{[7][8][9][10]} For Corominas, cited by DELI, the Romance words go back to the Greek word itself, taken into spoken Latin in several forms at different times and places.^[5] Nocentini too takes lutra as an adaptation of the Greek word.^[9]

The Romance forms are very varied: Old French loure, Occitan loira, Catalan lludria, Spanish nutria and Portuguese lontra.^[9][3] Meyer-Lübke explains the varied forms by Greek influence on the Latin word at different times and places: Sicilian itria continues a Greek-based Vulgar Latin *enitria, and the forms with ⟨n⟩, such as French loutre, blend the Latin word with a form *ontra.^[3]

lutra comes from Proto-Italic *udrā, from Proto-Indo-European *udrós (“of the water”), whose relatives include Sanskrit उद्र (udrá, “otter”), Lithuanian ūdra, Russian выдра (vydra) and Old High German ottar.^[11][1] The initial ⟨l⟩ is unexplained; it may come from lutum (“mud”), lavō (“to wash”), lupus (“wolf”) or lūdō (“to play”).^[11][1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), where a demon hooks a sinner by his pitchy hair and hauls him up so that he looks like an otter: e trassel sù, che mi parve una lontra.^[5][12] The TLIO's first record is in the poems of Dino Compagni.^[13]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the otter was the type of a nimble swimmer: Sacchetti compares a leaping Genoese to it, and Ariosto's Orlando swims “come una lontra”.^[12][2] The fur of the animal is called lontra from 1862 (Antonio Bresciani), though lontra di vaio in Bonavia (1383) probably already meant a fur lining.^[5]

In the 20th century the navy gave the name to the torpedo-shaped float of a minesweeping device.^[14][15] DEI also records lontra as the name of a copper colour in fashion (1941).^[14]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante compares a sinner to an otter.^[5]
• 1383 – Lontra di vaio appears in Bonavia.^[5]
• 1862 – Lontra is used for the fur, in Antonio Bresciani.^[5]
• 1941 – Lontra names a copper shade in fashion.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. An otter: a carnivorous mustelid slightly larger than a cat, with a long body, short webbed legs and thick dark fur, a skilled swimmer that hunts fish; especially the Eurasian otter, Lutra lutra.^[6][16][7]
2. The common name of the mammals of the subfamily of otters: lontra marina, the sea otter.^[6][15]
3. The fur of the otter: un colletto di lontra.^[6][8][7]
4. (nautical) The float of a paravane, towed by a ship to push aside moored or floating mines.^[6][15][17]

Word family

• lontrato

Related words

• nutria
• Latin lutra

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 602
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2268
15. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli