lotta

Forms

lotta f (plural lotte)^[1] The older form lutta was used by Boccaccio and later by poets such as Petrarch and Tasso.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin lucta (“wrestling; struggle”), from luctor (“to wrestle”).^[5][6][1] The Late Latin noun is probably a back-formation from the verb on the model of pugna (“fight”) beside pugnō (“to fight”).^[7][8][1] The noun is found across the Romance languages: French lutte (Old French luite), Occitan locha, Catalan lluyta, Spanish lucha, Portuguese luta and Romanian luptă.^[5][9] Battaglia's dictionary calls the Italian word learned.^[10]

The Latin verb was active in Old Latin and deponent in classical Latin.^[11] De Vaan explains it as a frequentative formed from a participle meaning “bent”, from Proto-Indo-European *lug-to-, and compares Ancient Greek λύγος (lúgos, “withy, twig”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Iacopone da Todi, in the last decade of the 13th century, with the sense of a fight without weapons.^[3] Boccaccio describes it as a game: young men “wrestled, and this game is called lutta” (usavano il fare alle braccia, e questo giuoco si chiama lutta).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word stretched from the wrestling match to any violent conflict, and figuratively to an intense effort of the soul.^[3] The sense of a contest between persons or groups is recorded for lutta before 1575 and for lotta before 1667.^[2] In Ariosto and Tasso the knights train alla lotta in tournaments and games.^[12]

The 19th and 20th centuries added the political and social senses: lotta di classe, class struggle in Marxist doctrine, lotta per l'esistenza, Darwin's struggle for existence, and lotta armata, the armed struggle of terrorist groups.^[13][14] The word also names a campaign against a social ill (lotta contro la droga) and, in agriculture, the control of pests (lotta biologica).^[6][15] As a sport it is wrestling, with Greco-Roman and freestyle styles;^[13][15][2] lotta giapponese is judo or jujitsu.^[13][15][2]

Timeline

• 1290s – Iacopone da Todi uses lutta.^[3]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses lutta for wrestling.^[2]
• Before 1575 – Benedetto Dell'Uva uses lutta for a contest between persons.^[2]
• 16th century – Francesco De Marchi uses lotta for a sod of turf.^[8]
• Before 1595 – Torquato Tasso uses the form lotta.^[2]
• Before 1667 – G. A. Marini uses lotta for a conflict between persons.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (sport) wrestling: hand-to-hand combat between two athletes, each trying to pin the other's back and shoulders to the mat: lotta greco-romana.^[6][15][13]
2. A fight, a physical struggle between people or animals in which each tries to overcome the other: Nella stanza c'erano segni di lotta.^[6][16][14]
3. An armed struggle, a battle: la lotta partigiana.^[6][14][13]
4. A conflict between persons or groups competing for a goal: lotte sindacali.^[6][16][13]
5. A campaign to defeat a social ill or a disease: la lotta contro l'analfabetismo.^[6][15]
6. (agriculture) The control of harmful organisms: lotta biologica.^[15][14]
7. An inner, spiritual struggle.^[6][13]

Related words

• lottare
• lottatore
• Latin lucta
• French lutte

Usage notes

DEI and Battaglia list a separate, obsolete lotta, a sod of turf used to face earthworks (16th century), of uncertain origin, perhaps Mediterranean, compared with Anconitan lòtta and Milanese lòta “clod”.^[8][10] Battaglia also has an old lotta “lottery”, formed from lotto.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 603
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2272
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
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. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse