Etymologically
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piatto

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Pronunciation

Forms

piatto (feminine piatta, masculine plural piatti, feminine plural piatte)[1] As a noun: piatto m (plural piatti, diminutive piattino or piattello, augmentative piattone)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flat”), a popular adaptation of Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat”) with an expressive double consonant.[2][3][4][1][5][6] The Greek adjective is of Indo-European origin and belongs to the same family as Latin planta (“sole of the foot”), the source of pianta.[3][4][2] The Vulgar Latin word is pan-Romance: French plat, Occitan plat, Catalan plat, Spanish chato, Portuguese chato and Sardinian piattu; the French word passed into German.[3][7][8] In southern Italy the inherited form is its doublet chiatto, and the standard word there comes from the literary language.[1][5][6]

The noun, “plate, dish”, is the adjective used as a noun.[9][10][11][12] The French noun gave Spanish plato.[7][5] The figurative sense “dull, flat” and the bookbinder's sense “book cover” follow the French adjective, which had them in 1588 and 1881.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun comes first, in Florentine accounts of 1288–1290: “ten tin plates cost one lira twelve soldi” (x piatti di stangno kostaro libre I soldi xii).[12][2] In the Novellino a father has gold and silver brought out “in plates and vessels”.[12][13] The adjective is used of the foot by Zucchero Bencivenni in 1310 and for flat-bottomed boats by Giovanni Villani, who died in 1348.[2][12]

Semantic evolution

The noun spread to the food served on a plate (about 1525, Antonio Pigafetta), the flat part of something (1561), any flat round object (1660), the stakes in card games and the dish holding them (1526) and, in the plural, the cymbals (before 1729, Anton Maria Salvini).[2] Piattonata, a blow with the flat of a sword, is in Franco Sacchetti before 1400.[2]

The adjective gained angolo piatto, the 180° angle (1892), and the sense “dull, inexpressive”, which the purist Alfredo Panzini blamed on French in 1905, complaining of a book that spoke of piatto realismo.[2] Piedipiatti “cop” (1959) copies American English flat feet, a scornful name first given to foot soldiers.[3] The biblical per un piatto di lenticchie, “for a mess of pottage”, means selling something valuable for very little.[1]

Italian piatto was borrowed into Greek, Albanian and Ottoman Turkish.[1][5]

Timeline

  • 1288–1290 – Florentine accounts record piatti “plates”.[2][12]
  • 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses the adjective of the foot.[2]
  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani writes of piatte navi “flat boats”.[2][12]
  • Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti has piattonata.[2]
  • About 1525 – Pigafetta uses piatto for a dish of food.[2]
  • 1526 – The sense “stakes in a card game” is recorded.[2]
  • Before 1729 – Salvini uses piatti for cymbals.[2]
  • 1892 – Angolo piatto is recorded.[2]
  • 1905 – Panzini notes the French-inspired sense “dull”.[2]
  • 1959 – Piedipiatti is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. flat: having an even surface, without hollows or bumps; also, thin: Per far rimbalzare i sassi sull'acqua bisogna sceglierli ben piatti.[14][9][10]
  2. Of land, without relief; of the sea, calm, without waves: Stamattina il lago era piatto come l'olio.[14][9][15]
  3. Of the face, nose or bust, not prominent.[14][11]
  4. (figurative) Dull, lacking originality or expression: Il film ha una trama piatta e prevedibile.[14][10][15]
  5. (mathematics) angolo piatto: a straight angle, of 180°.[9][10][15]
  6. Of a graph or trace, showing no variation: elettroencefalogramma piatto.[14][15][11]
  7. (oenology) Of wine, lacking acidity.[14][15]

Noun

  1. A plate or dish, the round vessel from which food is served and eaten: Dopo cena tocca a me lavare i piatti.[9][10][15]
  2. The food on a plate; a dish or course: Il suo piatto forte è il risotto ai funghi.[10][9]
  3. A flat round object, such as the pan of a scale; in the plural, (music) cymbals: Il batterista ha montato dei piatti nuovi.[10][2][1]
  4. The flat side of a blade; in bookbinding, either of the two boards of a cover.[10][2]
  5. The stakes in a game of chance: Con quel poker si è preso tutto il piatto.[10][2]
  6. A turntable.[1]

Word family

  • piattello
  • piattezza
  • piattina
  • piattino
  • piattonare
  • piattonata
  • piattaia
  • spiattellare
  • appiattare
  • appiattire
  • appiattimento
  • piedipiatti
  • rimpiattare
  • rimpiattino
  • soppiatto

Usage notes

A different, obsolete Tuscan adjective piatto meant “crouched, hidden”: it is the verbal adjective of appiattare “to hide”, as when Dante's simoniac popes lie “flattened through the cleft of the rock” (per la fessura della pietra piatti).[12][16][13][10] It survives in di soppiatto “stealthily”.[16][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2897
  6. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  14. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  15. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  16. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2898