orto

Forms

orto m (plural orti)^[1] The old plural was also the feminine le ortora, already found in a Latin document of 977 in the Codex Cavensis and in Italian around 1300.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hŏrtus (“garden”), properly “enclosure”.^{[3][5][6][7][1]} The Italian word lost the Latin ⟨h⟩, which was long kept in writing in horto.^[3][1]

The same word is Old French ort, Occitan ort, Catalan ort, Spanish huerto, Portuguese horto and Sardinian ortu.^[5][8] DEI calls it western pan-Romance and suggests it was perhaps borrowed into Gothic and Old English, as in English orchard.^[2] Körting notes that in Italian and French, and in part in Spanish and Portuguese, the Germanic word that gave giardino pushed it aside.^[9]

The Latin word comes from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰortós (“enclosure”), the source also of Oscan 𐌇𐌞𐌓𐌆 (húrz, “enclosure”), Ancient Greek χόρτος (khórtos, “enclosed place, feeding place”) and Old Irish gort (“field”).^[5][10][1] A variant ending in *-dʰo- gave Old High German garto (“garden”), German Garten and Lithuanian gardas (“pen, enclosure”).^[5][10] De Vaan thinks the Latin word can be connected with cohors (“enclosure, yard”).^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the word to the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, and to Dante (before 1321), in the sense of a piece of land, usually enclosed, where vegetables are grown.^[3][5][6] Zingarelli puts the first record before 1250.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Latin hortus was both a vegetable garden and a pleasure garden.^[3] Italian kept mainly the practical sense, the vegetable plot, as Migliorini observed.^[3] The sense “garden” survives in literary use, as in Carducci's muto orto solingo (silent, lonely garden).^[6][4][12] In the Decameron a character recalls working the garden: “Quando io lavorava alcuna volta l'orto” (when I sometimes worked the garden).^[13]

Dante called the Church l'orto catolico and the world the orto de l'ortolano etterno, the garden of the eternal gardener.^[6][12] In the Gospel story the orto degli olivi is the Garden of Gethsemane.^[12] The orto botanico is the botanical garden, and orti di guerra were the vegetable plots of public gardens and empty lots during the Second World War.^[12][6]

The derivative ortolano, “gardener” since Dante, was given across Italy to an insect, a mammal and several birds, all buntings; the sparrow was so named for its habit of seeking food in gardens.^[3] Figurative phrases include coltivare il proprio orto (to mind one's own business) and the Tuscan non è la via dell'orto (it is no easy road).^[14][12][15]

Timeline

• 977 – The plural ortora appears in a Latin document of the Codex Cavensis.^[2]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses orto.^[3]
• About 1300 – The Tuscan translation of Albertano has the plural ortora.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses orto and ortolano.^[3]
• Before 1484 – Pulci uses ortolano for the bird.^[3]
• 1518–1525 – Firenzuola uses ortaggio “vegetable”.^[3]
• 1829 – Orticoltura “horticulture” is recorded in Milanese print.^[3]
• 1965 – Ortomercato, a market for fruit and vegetables, appears in the Corriere della Sera.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vegetable garden: a plot of land, often fenced, where vegetables and fruit trees are grown: zappare l'orto dietro casa.^{[6][14][7][4]} Coltivare il proprio orto is to mind one's own business.^{[6][14][7][4]}
2. In orto botanico, a botanical garden.^[6][4][15]
3. (literary) A garden.^{[6][7][4][15]}
4. (figurative, literary) The Church, in Dante.^[6][12]

Word family

• ortaggio
• ortaglia
• ortense
• orticolo
• orticoltore
• orticoltura
• ortivo
• ortofrutticolo
• ortofrutticoltore
• ortofrutticoltura
• ortolano
• ortomercato
• ortale
• orticino
• orticello

Related words

• ortofloricoltura
• ortoflorofrutticoltura
• ortofrutta
• giardino
• Latin hortus
• Spanish huerto

Usage notes

A separate literary word orto, from Latin ortus (“rising”) (from orior (“to rise”)), means the rising of the sun or a star, and the east: Dante wrote “Ad un occaso quasi e ad un orto / Buggea siede” (Bougie lies at almost the same setting and rising of the sun).^[6][12][16] DELI notes that once the h- of horto was dropped, the two words were spelt alike, and the word for “east” soon declined and disappeared from common use.^[3] In chemistry orto is also an invariable adjective, from the prefix orto-, in posizione orto (ortho position), recorded from 1958.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2684
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e 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 k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca