pittare

Forms

pittare (first-person singular present pìtto, first-person singular past historic pittài, past participle pittàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pictāre, a southern word formed from Latin pictus (“painted”), the past participle of pingō (“to paint”).^[2][3][4][1] The other Romance languages go back to a form *pinctāre with the ⟨n⟩ of the present tense: Occitan pintar, Catalan pintar, Spanish pintar, Portuguese pintar and Sardinian pintare.^[2][5] In the same southern area there are sporadic traces of the verb pingere itself.^[5]

De Vaan derives pingō from a nasal present Proto-Indo-European *pi-n-ḱ- (“to paint, adorn”), with cognates in Sanskrit पिंशति (piṃśati, “adorns”) and Ancient Greek ποικίλος (poikílos, “many-coloured”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli date the verb to the 16th century, as a southern word for “to paint, varnish, whitewash”.^[2][3][4] The DEI's first record is later, in G. B. Passeri in the 18th century, and the Zingarelli dates it to 1872.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The verb has stayed regional in the south.^[8][4] Beside painting a surface it is used for making up the face or the eyes, also reflexively, pittarsi.^[4][8] Prati notes pitto “painted” in Luigi Pulci.^[9]

Timeline

• 1500s – Pittare is first recorded.^{[2][3][4][10]}
• 1700s – G. B. Passeri uses it.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (regional, southern Italy) To paint, to varnish or whitewash: Domani pittiamo la cucina.^{[3][10][2][8][1]}
2. (regional, southern Italy) To make up (the face, the eyes); also reflexive, pittarsi.^[4][8]

Related words

• pingere
• pittura
• pittore
• Latin pingo

Usage notes

A second verb pittare, from fishing, has a separate source: it is said of a fish that tugs at the bait around the hook without biting.^{[3][4][11][12]} It is Ligurian, from Genoese pittâ “to peck”, from a form pità for picà;^{[3][12][4][10][1]} Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti date it to 1937.^{[3][12][4][10][1]} Sabatini–Coletti also give a colloquial figurative sense, “to catch someone out”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2958
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 784
10. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ 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. 13, 587