nuotare

Forms

nuotare (first-person singular present nuòto, first-person singular past historic nuotài, past participle nuotàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The older and now rare form is notare; the GDLI also records an old Old Italian nodare.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Italian notare, the older form, inherited from Vulgar Latin *notāre, a by-form of classical Latin natāre (“to swim, float”).^[5][6][7][1] Old Italian had no diphthong in the infinitive, but forms such as ⟨nuota⟩ had the regular /wɔ/ from a stressed /ŏ/ in an open syllable; the diphthong then spread to the whole verb, where it also kept it apart from notare ‘to note’.^[1][3][8]

The form with /o/ is shared by Old French noer, noder in the Engadine, Romanian înota and Corsican nutà, while Occitan nadar, Catalan nadar, Spanish nadar, Portuguese nadar and Sardinian nadare continue the classical verb, as does natare in southern Italy.^{[6][9][1][10]} Why the vowel changed is not explained.^[9][11] Meyer-Lübke found none of the proposals convincing: a *nautāre, a dissimilation of the vowels, an old Indo-European ablaut, or a crossing with *motāre.^[9] Devoto saw a crossing with rotāre (“to turn round”).^[12]

natō is a frequentative of nāre (“to swim”), built on a past participle Proto-Italic *nătos.^[13][6] The root is Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- (“to swim, float”), which also gave Ancient Greek νήχω (nḗkhō, “to swim”).^[13][6] Nocentini explains the replacement of the simple verb by its frequentative by its shortness, as noer was later replaced by French nager, from nāvigāre.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giordano da Pisa, before 1311, for moving in the water while keeping afloat.^[5][7][8] The noun nuoto is older, recorded in the 13th century in Orlanduccio orafo.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the form was mostly notare: in Dante a creature sen va notando lenta lenta (“goes away swimming slowly, slowly”), and Boccaccio describes a sea full of goods che notavano (“that were floating”).^[14][11] Dante already used it for movement through the air (Venir notando una figura in suso, “a figure come swimming upwards”).^[11]

nuotatore appears as notatore in the 14th century and as nuotatore about 1553; nuotata is recorded in G. Stuparich (1932–1949).^[5] Figurative phrases speak of plenty: nuotare nell’oro or nell’abbondanza ‘to be rolling in money’, nuotare nel sudore ‘to be bathed in sweat’.^[7][8][11] Sport added transitive uses: to swim a stroke or a distance.^[7][3][15] In literary use the present participle nuotante is often replaced by natante.^[11]

Timeline

• 13th century – Nuoto in Orlanduccio orafo.^[5]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses nuotare.^[5][7]
• 14th century – Notatore in the Ovid translation.^[5]
• c. 1553 – Nuotatore in C. Da Canal's Milizia marittima.^[5]
• 1932–1949 – Nuotata in G. Stuparich.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To swim, of people and animals: D’estate nuotavamo fino alla boa e ritorno.^[7][3][4]
2. (transitive, sports) To swim a given stroke; to cover a distance swimming: nuotare i 200 metri.^[7][3][8]
3. Of things, to float; to be immersed in plenty of liquid.^[7][3][4]
4. (figurative) To glide through the air.^[7][3][15]
5. (figurative, colloquial) Of a person, to be lost in clothes or shoes that are too big.^[7]
6. (figurative) In nuotare nell’oro, nuotare nell’abbondanza: to be very rich.^[7][3][8]

Word family

• nuoto
• nuotata
• nuotatore
• sornuotare

Related words

• natare
• natante
• Latin natō

Usage notes

The diphthong uo is usually kept even in unstressed forms (nuotiamo, nuotava), so as not to confuse the verb with notare ‘to note’.^[3][8][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 672
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2612
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 299
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana