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Etymology and origin of the Italian word portata

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1281–1282
Ultimate origins
Latin portoItalian -ata
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin porto
French porter
English port
Italian portare
Italian portata
Italian porto
From the same root
Latin apporto ← porto
Latin asporto ← porto
Latin comporto ← porto
Latin supporto ← porto
Latin transporto ← porto
French emporter ← porter
Italian riportare ← portare

Pronunciation

  • /porˈta.ta/[1]

Forms

portata f (plural portate)[1] An old form is Old Italian portada.[2]

Etymology

It is from Italian portare (“to carry”) + -ata.[3][4][5] Treccani and the GDLI describe it as the feminine of the past participle portato, used as a noun.[6][2] The word is first found in Medieval Latin, as Medieval Latin portata, in 1244 in a document of the castle of Bonifacio in Corsica, for the load a ship can carry.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the Italian word to 1281–1282.[8] DELI's first Italian record is in the Venetian navigator Alvise Ca' da Mosto, before 1488, who was given “a new caravel with a burden (portada) of about ninety butts”.[7][2] The undated example in the maritime code of Amalfi (Tavola d'Amalfi) also uses it for a ship's cargo capacity.[7][9]

Semantic evolution

The word soon spread from ships to other measures of reach and capacity: Vannoccio Biringuccio used it before 1537 for the range of a projectile, and Giovanni Della Casa before 1556 for capacity, weight or importance.[7] Lorenzo Magalotti in 1719 used it for the limit that can be reached by some means, the origin of alla portata di “within reach of”.[7] In Florence a portata was also the declaration of harvests and livestock made for taxation, a sense now obsolete.[9]

The sense “course of a meal” is recorded in 1640, and in 1804 D'Alberti noted that it was the common Italian word for what Tuscans called servito or messo.[7] In 1816 it appears in hydraulics for the volume of water that passes through a section of a river in a second.[7]

Timeline

  • 1244 – Medieval Latin portata is recorded at Bonifacio for a ship's capacity.[7]
  • 1281–1282 – Nocentini's date for the Italian word.[8]
  • Before 1488 – Alvise Ca' da Mosto uses portada for the burden of a caravel.[7]
  • Before 1537 – Biringuccio uses it for the range of a projectile.[7]
  • 1640 – The sense “course of a meal” is recorded.[7]
  • 1719 – Magalotti uses it for the limit one can reach.[7]
  • 1816 – The sense “flow of a river” appears.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A course of a meal: Dopo la terza portata nessuno aveva più fame.[3][5][10]
  2. The capacity of a vehicle, lift or structure: Questo montacarichi ha una portata di 500 chili.[3][5][4]
  3. The largest value a measuring instrument can measure.[3][5][6]
  4. The range of a gun or projectile.[3][10][6]
  5. The distance the eye, the voice or the hand can reach, a portata di mano “within reach”, alla portata di tutti “within everyone's means”.[3][5][10]
  6. (figurative) Importance, scope: Solo anni dopo si capì la portata di quella legge.[5][4][10]
  7. (physics) The flow of a river or other fluid through a section in a unit of time.[4][10][1]

Usage notes

Portata is also the feminine of the past participle of portare.[11][4] A piatto di portata is a serving dish.[6]

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
  3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
Cite this entry

“Portata.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/portata. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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