pittore

Forms

pittore m (plural pittori, feminine pittrice)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pictor (“painter”), a learned word, from the accusative form.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary instead treats it as inherited from the Latin accusative.^[1] The Latin noun is formed on pingō (“to colour, paint”), whose past participle is pictus, with the agent suffix -tor.^[1][5][6] De Vaan traces the verb to a nasal present of the root Proto-Indo-European *piḱ-.^[7]

The inherited word was Old Italian pintore, from Vulgar Latin *pinctor, whose nasal comes from the present stem of that verb.^[3][8] The other Romance languages kept that form: French peintre, Occitan pintor, Catalan pintor, Spanish pintor, Portuguese pintor and Sardinian pintore.^[3][9] Migliorini noted that the Latinism at first lived beside the native forms and then won over both of them and dipintore.^[2] Early 14th-century Florentine documents written in Latin use the Latin noun, those in the vernacular use the Italian word, and the statutes of Perugia of 1342 speak of the guild of the pentore.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the first record to the first half of the 14th century, in the Italian translation of Valerius Maximus, with the sense of someone who practises the art of painting.^[2] GRADIT gives a date before 1347.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the sense “artist who paints”, and Tommaseo–Bellini records the proverb ogni pittore dipinge sé (every painter paints himself), said of someone who blames others for his own fault.^[10] The sense “house painter, decorator” is recorded in 1839–1841 in Molossi, who objected to calling both Raphael and the man who colours doors and shutters by the same name and noted that in Florence the latter were called tintori.^[2][11]

Figuratively a pittore is a writer who describes people and places vividly, and in Tommaseo's fantasia pittrice the feminine is an adjective.^[4][12] Archaeologists use pittore di … for an unnamed Greek vase painter known by a potter, a museum or a motif.^[4][12] The derivative pittoresco is recorded in 1664 in Redi, and pittorico in 1704.^[2]

Timeline

• First half of the 14th century – Pittore appears in the translation of Valerius Maximus.^[2]
• 1342 – The statutes of Perugia have the vernacular pentore.^[2]
• 1664 – Redi uses pittoresco.^[2]
• 1704 – Pittorico is recorded.^[2]
• 1839–1841 – Molossi records pittore for a decorator or house painter.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. painter: an artist who paints, as a profession or a hobby: un pittore di paesaggi marini.^{[4][13][11][1]}
2. A house painter or decorator, who paints the walls of buildings.^{[4][13][11][1]}
3. Someone who paints shop signs or illustrates books and papers.^[4][13]
4. (archaeology) An unnamed Greek vase painter, known by a potter, a museum or a recurring motif.^[4][12]
5. (figurative) A writer who portrays people and places vividly.^[4][13][6]

Adjective

1. (literary) Vividly evocative (usually in the feminine pittrice): una prosa pittrice.^[4][13][11]

Word family

• pittoresco
• pittorico
• pittoricità
• pittoricismo
• pittorello
• pittrice

Related words

• pittare
• pittura
• dipingere
• dipintore
• Latin pictor
• French peintre

Usage notes

The feminine is pittrice.^[1][11] Diminutive and pejorative forms include pittorello, pittoruccio and pittorucolo.^[6][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 785
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier