matto

Forms

matto (feminine matta, masculine plural matti, feminine plural matte)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian macto and Old Italian mato.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin mattus, but the history of that word is disputed.^[4][5] Most dictionaries connect it with the colloquial matus (“drunk”) of Petronius (“plane mattus sum”, “I am thoroughly drunk”).^[5][6][7][8] That adjective may be a syncopated Latin *maditus (“soaked”), beside madidus (“wet, drunk”) from madeō (“to be wet”), with the sense moving from “drunk” to “dazed” and “mad”.^{[5][1][9][10]}

Nocentini, followed by Devoto–Oli and the TLIO, starts instead from the word glossed as “foolish” in late Latin glossaries, an altered Latin maccus (“fool”), the name of the fool of the Atellan farce; Sardinian maccu (“mad, foolish”) continues it.^[5][11][2] He rejects the FEW's single source for all the Romance words in matt- and sees chance homonyms instead.^[5] DEI notes that the glosses explain the word as both “sad” and “foolish”, and compares Ancient Greek μάταιος (mátaios, “vain, foolish”).^[12] Meyer-Lübke put the adjective under the Persian chess word for “dead” instead.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Genoese Contrasto of the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, about 1190, with the sense “lacking reason, acting against good sense”.^[2] DELI's first record is in Ubertino d'Arezzo in the 13th century: “if it is wisdom to live a madman's life, your condition is still good” (S'egli è savere far vita d'om matto, / ancor è bona tua condizione).^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The noun “madman” is in Bonagiunta of Lucca in the 13th century.^[4] Dante's Beatrice tells the Christians to be men, not foolish sheep (Uomini siate, e non pecore matte).^[14][15] In 1561 il matto is the Fool of the tarot, the card that goes with every other card and never dies.^[4]

Later the word meant “odd and hard to handle” (before 1729) and, as an intensifier, “huge” (1869, una voglia matta).^[4][16] It also came to mean false or worthless (oro matto, soldi matti) and, of a limb, weak.^[7][16] In the northern dialects mat and mata mean “boy” and “girl”.^[12][13] French borrowed the word as mat “mad” in 1532.^[17]

Timeline

• About 1190 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras uses the word in Genoese.^[2]
• 13th century – Ubertino d'Arezzo uses matto.^[4]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses the derivative matteria “madness”.^[4]
• 1532 – French mat “mad” is recorded.^[17]
• 1536 – Pietro Aretino uses mattacchione.^[4]
• 1561 – Matto names the Fool of the tarot.^[4]
• 1869 – Tommaseo records the sense “huge”.^[4]
• 1884 – Carlo Dossi uses mattoide.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. mad, insane: essere matto da legare.^[6][11][16]
2. Acting without sense, reckless: Sei matto a guidare con questa nebbia?^[6][11]
3. Odd, eccentric, crazy: Quel ragazzo è una testa matta.^[6][11][7]
4. Beside oneself with a strong feeling, as in matto di gioia, and in andare matto per “to be mad about”.^[6][11][16]
5. (figurative) Huge, intense: Ho una fame matta.^[6][16]
6. False, of little value: oro matto.^[7][16]
7. (colloquial) Of a part of the body, weak or unsound: un ginocchio matto.^[7][16]

Noun

1. A madman; someone who behaves oddly: Guida come un matto.^[6][11][16]
2. (card games) The Fool of the tarot.^[4]

Word family

• matta
• mattacchione
• mattaccino
• mattana
• mattata
• matteria
• mattoide
• ammattire

Related words

• pazzo

Usage notes

Two minor words share the spelling.^[6][4] Matto in scacco matto “checkmate” comes from the Persian chess formula shāh māt “the king is dead”, through Arabic; the TLIO first finds it in the late 12th century, and DELI dates scacco matto before 1306.^[4][2][6] Matto “dull, matte”, said of colours and metals, is recorded in the 13th century in oro matto;^{[2][4][12][5]} DELI and DEI take it from French mat, while Nocentini and the TLIO derive it from Old Italian mattare.^{[2][4][12][5]}

Set phrases include roba da matti and cose da matti “it's crazy”, and fossi matto! “not on your life!”.^[6][11][16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 275
11. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2394
13. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it