Etymologically
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morto

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Pronunciation

Forms

morto (feminine morta, masculine plural morti, feminine plural morte)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *mortus, for classical Latin mortuus (“dead”), the participle of morior (“to die”).[2][3][1][4] The word is found in every Romance language: French mort, Occitan mort, Catalan mort, Spanish muerto, Portuguese morto, Sardinian mortu and Romanian mort.[2][5][6]

The Latin participle goes back to Proto-Italic *mortwos and Proto-Indo-European *mr̥twós, from the root *mer- (“to die”).[1][7] De Vaan thinks the older adjective ⟨*mr̥to-⟩, kept in Slavic, took its ending from a second adjective ⟨*mr̥u̯o-⟩ “dead”, preserved in Old Irish marb.[7] Devoto had already seen a blend of the words for “dead” and “alive”.[4] Related words are Ancient Greek βροτός (brotós, “mortal man”) and Russian мёртвый (mjórtvyj, “dead”).[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record, as a participle and adjective meaning “having ceased to live”, is in Monte Andrea, in the 13th century.[8] GDLI quotes him: L'omo nudo chi 'l fere di coltello, / di piciol colpo può divenir morto (“a naked man, if one strikes him with a knife, can die of a small blow”).[9]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses came early: “inert” in Guittone d'Arezzo and the noun morto “dead person” in Brunetto Latini, both before 1294, “lifeless” in Giordano da Pisa (before 1311) and “useless” in Paolo da Certaldo in the 14th century.[8] Leopardi's le morte stagioni (1819) uses it for time gone by.[8][10] Until the 16th century the participle could also be active, “killed”, a use still found in Tuscan.[6][1]

Many fixed phrases use the adjective: lingua morta “dead language”, binario morto “siding”, punto morto “deadlock”, peso morto “dead weight”, and hyperbolic stanco morto “dead tired”.[10][11] In bridge the morto is the dummy (1935).[8] Vivo o morto is a calque of English “dead or alive”.[12]

Timeline

  • 13th century – Monte Andrea uses morto “dead”.[8]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses the noun, and Guittone d'Arezzo the sense “inert”.[8]
  • Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for “lifeless”.[8]
  • 1819 – Leopardi writes le morte stagioni “the dead seasons”.[8]
  • 1935 – The bridge sense “dummy” is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. dead, no longer living: Hanno trovato un passero morto sul balcone.[12][3][13]
  2. (colloquial) Of a limb, numb, without feeling.[12][3][1]
  3. (hyperbolic) Exhausted or overwhelmed: stanco morto, morto di fame.[12][10][14]
  4. (figurative) Lifeless, inactive, no longer in use: una città morta d'inverno, una lingua morta.[13][10][11]
  5. (literary) Of time, past and gone.[10][1]

Noun

  1. A dead person; a corpse.[13][1][15]
  2. (card games) The dummy in bridge, or a fictitious fourth player.[13][1][8]

Word family

  • morta
  • morticino
  • mortorio
  • smorto
  • tramortire
  • mortizza

Usage notes

Morto is the past participle of morire, which takes essere: è morto “he has died”.[1][10] Fare il morto is to float on one's back.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 289
  5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2514
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  10. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  12. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  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