putto

Forms

putto m (plural putti)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *puttus (“boy, child”), an affective form with a doubled consonant of Latin putus (“boy”).^[2][3][4][5] DELI and GRADIT start from the classical form, in the accusative pŭtum.^[6][7] putus is of the same root as puer (“boy, child”) and pullus (“young animal”).^[6][2][8] Wiktionary compares Spanish puto and Portuguese puto.^[1]

The Latin word is rare: it is known from a line of the ⟨Catalepton⟩ attributed to Virgil, where it rests on Scaliger's emendation, the manuscripts reading potus or pothus.^[1][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *puto- (“boy”) and Proto-Indo-European *put-lo- (“son”) for the related pullus.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date the word to 1303, in the sense “child, small boy”.^[7][2] DELI's first record is in a 14th-century vernacular Bible: in the story of Elisha, the prophet lies down upon the dead child (ascese e posesi sopra il putto).^[6][10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian putto was a common word for a child, and also for a new-born or unborn baby: Leonardo writes of the putto in the womb.^[10] It also meant a son, a page, and figuratively a naive or immature person, and Tuscan proverbs used it: all'uomo moglie, al putto verga, “for the man a wife, for the boy the rod”.^[10] In the north it survived in the form puto.^[10] Today it is mostly regional or dialectal as a word for a child.^[11][8][12]

In the visual arts the word, often as the diminutive puttino, came to name a figure of a naked child, a cupid or cherub;^[6][11][10] DELI's first record of this sense is in Filarete before 1465.^[6][11][10] The art sense passed into English as putto (1644), into German as Putte (1699) and into French at the end of the 19th century.^[13][1]

Timeline

• 1303 – First record of putto “child”.^[7][2]
• 14th century – A vernacular Bible uses putto for the child raised by Elisha.^[6][10]
• Before 1465 – Filarete uses the word for a cupid in art.^[6][13]
• 1644 – English putto is first recorded.^[13]
• 1699 – German Putte is first recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (art) A putto: a figure of a small naked child in painting or sculpture, often a cupid or little angel: un fregio di putti alati.^{[7][3][14][1]}
2. (regional, archaic) A small child; a boy.^{[7][11][12][1]}

Word family

• puttino
• puttello
• putta

Related words

• puerile
• pusillo
• Latin putus

Usage notes

A separate adjective putto, “whorish, venal”, used by Dante (com'ora è putta, of Florence), has a separate source: it is Old French put “foul”, from Latin putidus, and belongs with putta and puttana.^[7][5][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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, p. 14, 1071
11. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana