quadro

Forms

quadro (feminine quadra, masculine plural quadri, feminine plural quadre); as a noun m (plural quadri).^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin quadrus (“square”), with the noun from its neuter quadrum (“a square, square object”).^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary instead calls the adjective and the noun inherited.^[1] The Latin word is related to Latin quattuor (“four”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr.^[2][3][1] Devoto calls the Latin adjective an anomalous form, perhaps alternating with an older *quatro-.^[6]

The sense “painting” arose in the Renaissance under the influence of Spanish cuadro, which had meant a painted picture since its first records.^[3][5] DELI quotes Gianfranco Folena, who placed the first painterly uses at the end of the 15th and start of the 16th century and saw a Hispanism in them, spread by Italian painters' dealings with the Aragonese and Borgia courts and the Spanish art market.^[2] Folena allowed an independent development from the architectural sense “panel of a wall” but judged the Spanish word decisive.^[2]

The sense “cadre, middle-ranking official” is a calque of Russian кадры (kadry), the party officials of Soviet usage, which had itself been taken from French cadre, the officers and non-commissioned officers of an army.^[3][2][5] The French word goes back to the Italian noun in the first place.^[3][7][8]

Besides the Spanish word, the same Latin word gave Portuguese quadro, Old French quarre “corner” and Old Occitan caire.^[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is first recorded in Ristoro d'Arezzo in 1282 and in Brunetto Latini, meaning “square in shape”.^[2][3] The noun, “square object or space”, appears before 1311 in Giordano da Pisa, and the plural quari already in Giacomino da Verona in the second half of the 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A Venetian document of 1494 uses quadro for a panel of a wall to be painted, and a Sienese inventory of 1500 for a picture of the Virgin.^[2] A letter of Pietro Bembo of 1505 has the modern sense of a painting.^[2] In the plural it named the suit of diamonds in French playing cards by 1547.^[2]

From the 18th century the word took on figurative senses: a broad, organised description (before 1768), a scene or image, a table of data (quadro delle spese, 1801), which purists of the 19th century objected to as French.^[2] In the theatre it named a scene within an act (before 1835), and in technology a control panel (1930).^[2]

In the plural it meant the ranks of an army in 1797, and through Russian usage the officials of a party: Palmiro Togliatti used it in 1924 for party members and in 1928 for party leaders.^[2] It later spread to the middle management of companies.^[2][4] Italian lent the word to French as cadre (1549, quadre, “frame”), and it reached Ottoman Turkish and Armenian.^[8][1]

Timeline

• 1282 – Ristoro d'Arezzo uses quadro “square”.^[2][3]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses the noun for a square object.^[2]
• 1494 – A Venetian document uses it for a wall panel for a painting.^[2]
• 1505 – Pietro Bembo uses it for a painting.^[2][8]
• 1547 – Quadri is recorded for the suit of diamonds.^[2]
• 1549 – French quadre, later cadre, is recorded as a loan from Italian.^[8]
• Before 1768 – Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni uses it for a broad description.^[2]
• 1797 – The plural is used for the ranks of an army in Venice.^[2]
• 1928 – Palmiro Togliatti uses quadri for party leaders.^[2]
• 1930 – The sense “control panel” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. square, quadrangular in shape: un cortile quadro.^[4][5][10]
2. Of shoulders or the build, broad and sturdy.^[4][5] (figurative) testa quadra: a logical, rational person, or a stubborn or slow one.^[4][5][11]
3. (mathematics) squared: metro quadro.^[5][11]

Noun

1. A square or rectangular object, space or element, such as one of the checks of a fabric: una gonna a quadri.^[4][5][10]
2. A painting, usually framed: un quadro a olio.^[4][10][11]
3. (card games, in the plural) diamonds.^[4][1]
4. A broad, organised description or overview: il quadro della situazione.^[4][10]
5. A table or chart setting out data: quadro sinottico.^[4]
6. A scene or sight that stirs feelings.^[4][10]
7. A framework or context.^[4] As an invariable adjective, a framework law or agreement: legge quadro.^[4]
8. (theatre) A scene within an act, or a part of a show not divided into acts.^[4]
9. (cinema, television) The frame of a film shot or the television picture.^[4]
10. A control panel or switchboard: quadro di comando.^[4][1]
11. (in the plural) The officers and non-commissioned officers of an army.^[4] A cadre: a middle- or high-ranking official of a party or union, or a middle manager of a company.^[4][1]

Word family

• quadrare
• quadrato
• quadrante
• quadretto
• quadrello
• quadreria
• quadrettare
• quadrettatura
• inquadrare
• inquadratura
• riquadrare
• riquadro
• quadruccio

Related words

• quadra
• quattro
• squadra
• Latin quadrus
• Spanish cuadro
• French cadre

Usage notes

Quadro and quadrato compete in the sense “squared”: metro quadro and metro quadrato.^[5][12] The phrase essere un quadro is said of something so harmonious it looks painted.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w 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 d e f g 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 k l m n o p q r s De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)