occhiata

Forms

occhiata f (plural occhiate)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian occhio + -ata, with the suffix of nouns for a single action or blow.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Wiktionary also allows Vulgar Latin *oculāta as the source, from Latin oculus (“eye”).^[1]

The same formation is found across the Romance languages: French œillade, Catalan ullada, Spanish ojeada and Portuguese olhada, all meaning “glance”.^[6][7] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *okʷelos, from the root Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- (“to see; eye”), which also gave Lithuanian akis and Ancient Greek ὄσσε (ósse, “the two eyes”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Zingarelli date the word to 1427.^[2][5] The GDLI's earliest quotations are from the sermons of Bernardino da Siena, who describes men and women in church exchanging glances (l’occhiate vanno a torno), and, from the Venetian poet Leonardo Giustinian, who asks his lady for qualche ochiata.^[9] The sense is “a quick look”.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named a look that was quick, often furtive or meaningful, and the phrases dare and gettare un’occhiata were soon fixed: Leonardo advises the painter who must draw a face from memory to give it one look and note its features in a little book.^[9] A Tuscan proverb in Tommaseo's dictionary says that a look says more than a sermon (dice più un’occhiata che una predica).^[10]

From the glance came the quick reading of a text and the brief check on something or someone, as in dare un’occhiata to a pot on the stove or to children.^[2][4][11] The older sense “sight, view” has fallen out of use.^[5] Pejorative and diminutive forms are occhiataccia, a hostile look, and occhiatina.^[5][11]

Timeline

• 1427 – Occhiata is first recorded.^[2][5]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo advises giving una occhiata to a face to be drawn from memory.^[9]
• 1823 – The fish called occhiata is recorded.^[3][4][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A quick glance, often intense or meaningful: Bastò un’occhiata tra i due fratelli.^[2][3][4][5]
2. A quick reading or look over something, a brief check: Puoi dare un’occhiata a questa lettera?^[2][4][13]
3. (figurative) A short survey or examination of a question.^[2]
4. Watch, supervision for a short time: Dai un’occhiata al cane mentre esco.^[2][4][11]

Word family

• occhiataccia
• occhiatina

Related words

• occhio
• adocchiare
• French œillade

Usage notes

Dare un’occhiata (to take a look, to keep an eye on) and gettare or lanciare un’occhiata (to cast a glance) are the usual phrases.^[2][11][3]

A separate word occhiata is the name of a Mediterranean sea bream, Oblada melanura, recorded from 1823; it continues Latin oculāta “having eyes”, from the fish's large eyes.^{[12][3][4][14]} DEI says the name is common in Italian ports (Palermitan ugghiata, Venetian ociada) and passed through Genoese into Provençal oublado, and thence into French oblade and Spanish oblada.^[15][6] In Pulci and older texts the word named a kind of ray.^[16][17][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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, p. 11, 758
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2622
16. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 706
17. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 759