palato

Forms

palato m (plural palati)^[1] An old form palatio was used for the sake of the metre.^[2]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin palātum (“roof of the mouth”).^{[3][4][2][5][6]} The inherited word survives in Aromanian pănat, and French palais comes from a variant Vulgar Latin *palatium, while Occitan paladar, Catalan paladar, Spanish paladar and Portuguese padar go back to a derivative, as do Sicilian palataru and Sardinian paladari.^[5][7][8]

The origin of the Latin word is obscure.^[3][4][9] Paul the Deacon's abridgement of Festus cites Etruscan falado (“sky”), and the comparison fits a widespread metaphor of the palate as the vault of the mouth, as in Ancient Greek οὐρανός (ouranós), Russian нёбо (njobo) and Lithuanian dangùs.^[5][8][10] Nocentini concludes that the Latin and Etruscan words come from a common substrate.^[5] Devoto derived it from a Mediterranean base meaning “roundness”.^[11] De Vaan suggests an adjective in -ātus from a stem meaning “flat, broad”, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, wide”), and thinks the hill name Latin Palātium may be derived from it.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated sense is figurative: the sense of taste, in Bono Giamboni before 1292.^[3][6] The anatomical sense, the roof of the mouth, is recorded in the 14th century in a treatise on the diseases of horses.^[3] Zingarelli dates the word to 1268.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The palate was long taken to be the seat of taste, which explains the early figurative use.^[13][14] Brunetto Latini, after Seneca, wished that the palate be moved by hunger and not by flavour, and Dante speaks of Eve as the one il cui palato a tutto 'l mondo costa, whose palate cost the whole world dear.^[15][14] From taste in food the word passed to the person who has it, a gourmet, and to aesthetic judgement in general.^[6][14]

The linguistic terms came later: palatale took French palatal as its model and is dated in Italian from Graziadio Isaia Ascoli in 1870, and Ascoli also used palatalizzazione in 1886–1888.^[3] In 1877 Fanfani and Arlìa mocked palatale as a new coinage of the linguists, preferring the older palatino.^[3]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses palato for the sense of taste.^[3]
• 14th century – The anatomical sense appears in a treatise on horse medicine.^[3]
• Before 1694 – Palatino “of the palate” appears in Malpighi.^[3]
• 1870 – Ascoli uses palatale.^[3]
• 1886–1888 – Ascoli uses palatalizzazione.^[3]
• 1895 – The heraldic adjective palato is recorded.^[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The palate, the roof of the mouth in humans and other vertebrates;^[6][16][4] palato duro and palato molle are the hard and soft palate.^[6][16][4]
2. (figurative) The sense of taste: È un formaggio che piace ai palati esigenti.^[6][16][13]
3. (figurative) A person of refined taste in food, a gourmet.^[6][16][13]
4. (figurative) Taste in art, aesthetic sensibility.^[6][9]
5. (botany) The bulge of the lower lip of the corolla that closes the throat of flowers such as the snapdragon.^[6][13]

Word family

• palatale
• palatalizzare
• palatalizzazione
• palatino

Related words

• Latin palātum
• French palais

Usage notes

Palato is also a heraldic adjective (and noun) for a shield divided into an even number of pales in two alternating tinctures; it is a separate word, formed from palo with the suffix -ato and recorded from 1895.^{[6][4][14][17]} It is also the past participle of palare “to stake”, said of vines and trees propped on poles.^[2][15] An obsolete noun palato, from palo, meant a palisade in the 14th century.^[18][15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 385
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2728
9. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 386
18. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2727