prato

Forms

prato m (plural prati or (Old Italian) pràtora)^[1] The old plurals were Old Italian prata and Old Italian pràtora;^[2][3][4] le prata still lived in the mountains near Pistoia in the 19th century, and D'Annunzio used pràtora in verse.^[2][3][4] A northern form is Old Italian prado.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prātum (“meadow”).^[5][7][8][1] The word is common to the Romance languages: Romanian prat, French pré, Occitan prat, Catalan prat, Spanish prado, Portuguese prado and Sardinian pradu.^[7][9] In late times prātum was also borrowed into Cornish praz and Breton prad.^[6]

The origin of prātum is uncertain, and it has no sure comparisons.^{[5][7][4][10]} A link with Old Irish ráith (“earthen rampart”) is weak in meaning; de Vaan prefers Steinbauer's Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-to- (“what has been allotted”), from the root of pariō, and compares the history of the English word meadow.^[11] Wiktionary instead connects it with Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- (“to bend”) and prāvus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Paduan Latin document of 898 already has prado.^[6] Nocentini and GRADIT date the Italian word to the late 12th century.^[7][8] DELI's first records are pradho in Uguccione da Lodi, early in the 13th century, and prato in Giacomino Pugliese, in the first half of that century, in the sense “stretch of uncultivated grassy land”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The farming sense, land kept in grass for fodder, is recorded in a statute of 1301.^[5] The Italian Crescenzi begins its book on meadows: I prati furono dalla natura per divino comandamento creati (“Meadows were created by nature at God's command”).^[2] Tommaseo–Bellini distinguishes a prato, mown for hay, from a pascolo, grazed by the animals.^[2]

Prateria appears in Boccaccio about 1336; its sense of the vast plains of the Mississippi valley, made popular by westerns, comes from English prairie.^[5] Pratile (1796) renders the French revolutionary month prairial.^[5] The mushroom name prataiolo goes back to the funghi prataiuoli of 1345.^[5]

In modern use prato is also a lawn, the grass of a sports field, as in hockey su prato, and at a racecourse the cheap enclosure, the French pelouse.^[8][12][3]

Timeline

• 898 – Latin prado in a document from Padua.^[6]
• Late 12th century – the Italian word is first recorded.^[7][8]
• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi has pradho.^[5]
• First half of the 13th century – Giacomino Pugliese has prato.^[5]
• 1301 – a statute uses prato for a hay meadow.^[5]
• About 1336 – Boccaccio has prateria.^[5]
• 1345 – funghi prataiuoli “meadow mushrooms” are recorded.^[5]
• 1796 – pratile renders French prairial.^[5]
• 1802–1804 – pratolina “daisy” in Ottaviano Targioni Tozzetti.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. meadow, lawn: a stretch of grassy, usually uncultivated ground: Abbiamo steso la coperta sul prato.^[8][12][13]
2. (agriculture) Land under grass grown for fodder, mown or grazed: prato stabile, prato polifito.^[8][12][4]
3. (ecology) A plant community made up only of herbaceous species; prateria.^[8][3]
4. (sport) A grass playing field: hockey su prato.^[8][12][13]
5. (horse racing) The infield of a racecourse, or the cheapest public enclosure.^[8][12]
6. (as an invariable adjective) In verde prato, a bright light green.^[8][12]

Word family

• prateria
• prataiolo
• pratolina
• pratense
• prativo
• pratile
• praticolo
• pratoso
• pratello

Related words

• Latin prātum
• French pré

Usage notes

The Tuscan city of Prato is named after the meadow where the parish church of Santo Stefano, later the cathedral, stood.^[14] Tommaseo–Bellini records the proverb fare come que’ da Prato, “to let it rain when it rains”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3050
7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 341
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org