lotto

Forms

lotto m (plural lotti)^[1] The old spelling is Old Italian loto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French lot (“share, portion drawn by lot”).^[3][4][5][6] Nocentini and Wiktionary give the Old French form, lot (“fate; share that falls to one by lot”).^[7][1] The French word is from Frankish *hlot (“inheritance, lot”),^[4][7][1] from Proto-Germanic *hlutą.^[1] It is related to English lot, German Los and Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍄𐍃 (hlauts, “lot, inheritance”).^[7][8][6][9] Meyer-Lübke also traces Spanish lote and Portuguese lote to the French word.^[10]

The original sense was the drawing of lots and the share assigned by it, from which come both “lottery” and “portion of a whole”.^[7] Treccani notes that in Italy the word first named a lottery, and that the sense “share, portion” developed later and independently.^[6] The derivative lotteria is itself from French loterie.^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a letter of Paolo Giovio of 1543, which speaks of making a loto alla veniziana, a Venetian-style lottery, to sell tax revenues.^[3][4] In Florence a lotto was an extraordinary tax introduced in 1530: the richer citizens had to buy numbered tickets, which were then drawn for prizes, often goods and houses confiscated by the state.^[4][6][2] Varchi, before 1565, writes of the Florentines making a lotto of rebels' goods at a ducat a ticket.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

Marin Sanudo's diaries already record the Venetian loto, where a house was won as a prize.^[2] Tuscan decrees use the word for a lottery in 1710 and for the game with the first ninety numbers in 1739.^[12] The sense “part of a divided whole” is recorded in 1795, a group of horses in 1905, a block of shares in 1950 and a quantity of goods in 1957.^[3]

The derivative lottizzare “to divide into lots” is recorded in 1935, and in politics, “to share out posts among the parties”, in 1981 (Berlinguer); lottizzazione followed in 1963 and in the political sense in 1970.^[3] A. Ronchey claimed to have introduced the political term in letters to Ugo La Malfa of 1968.^[3]

Italian lotto went back into French as loto (1732 in DIFIT, 1782 in DEI) and was borrowed into German (1715) and English (1778).^[7][13][8]

Timeline

• 1530 – Florence introduces the lotto as an extraordinary tax.^[4][6]
• 1543 – Paolo Giovio writes of a loto alla veniziana.^[3]
• Before 1565 – Benedetto Varchi uses lotto.^[3]
• 1640 – Lotteria is recorded in Oudin.^[3]
• 1715 – German Lotto is recorded.^[13]
• 1732 – French loto is recorded.^[13]
• 1739 – Tuscan decrees use the word for the game of the ninety numbers.^[12]
• 1778 – English lotto is recorded.^[13]
• 1795 – The sense “part of a divided whole” is recorded.^[3]
• 1935 – Lottizzare is recorded.^[3]
• 1981 – Berlinguer uses lottizzare for sharing out posts among parties.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. lotto: the state-run game of chance in which five numbers from 1 to 90 are drawn on each of ten ruote and prizes go to those who guessed one or more: Ogni sabato gioca al lotto gli stessi numeri.^[4][5][14]
2. The office that runs this game: ricevitoria del lotto (lotto shop).^[4][15]
3. (history) An extraordinary tax introduced in Florence in 1530, raised by the forced sale of tickets that were drawn for prizes.^[4][6]
4. A lottery.^[4]
5. Each of the parts into which a whole, such as an inheritance or goods for auction, is divided; a lot.^[4][5][15]
6. A batch of goods: un lotto di scarpe.^[4][5][16]
7. A plot of building land from the division of a building area.^[4][5][16]
8. A section of a work contracted out separately.^[5][16]
9. (sport) The field of competitors in a race.^[16][15][17]
10. (finance) The trading unit of a security.^[16][15]

Word family

• lotteria
• lottizzare
• lottizzazione
• lottista

Related words

• French lot
• French loto

Usage notes

Dare i numeri (del lotto) means to talk nonsense, and vincere un terno al lotto to have a stroke of unexpected luck.^[14][15] Lotto is also the first person singular present of lottare.^[18] A separate, obsolete lotto was a measure of capacity used in Flanders, recorded by Pegolotti in the 14th century and by Lodovico Guicciardini; the TLIO derives it from Flemish lot.^[19][8][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ 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)
7. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2273
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 603
13. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
18. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
19. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it