Etymologically
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quarto

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Pronunciation

Forms

quarto (feminine quarta, masculine plural quarti, feminine plural quarte)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quartus (“fourth”), the ordinal of quattuor (“four”).[2][3][4][1][5] The same word is Old French quart, Occitan quart, Catalan quart, Spanish cuarto, Portuguese quarto, Logudorese kartu and Friulian kuart;[3][6] French now says quatrième for the ordinal.[3][6]

The Latin ordinal goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwr̥tós, formed on *kʷetwóres (“four”) with the reduced grade of the root and the ordinal suffix *-tós.[3][1] Parallel ordinals are Ancient Greek τέταρτος (tétartos), Sanskrit चतुर्थ (caturtha) and Lithuanian ketvirtas.[3][1] Devoto explains the long vowel of Latin quārtus by the simplification of the consonant group, and cites the Praenestine form Quorta as an intermediate form.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record, from the Decime mugellane of 1230–1260, is a noun use, “the one in fourth place”.[2] The adjective “fourth” is in Bono Giamboni's Vizi e virtudi (before 1292), and the noun “one of four equal parts” in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

As a noun quarto named a quarter of many things: a quarter of a soldo or denaro and later a silver coin, a measure of wine or grain, the quarters into which a slaughtered animal is cut (Firenzuola, 1518–1525) and the body of an executed man, and in heraldry a quarter of the shield (before 1750).[2][8][9] The quarto d'ora, a quarter of an hour, is in Berni.[9] In 17th-century courtly prose quarto also meant a suite of rooms, after Spanish cuarto.[10]

DIFIT dates the printing sense, a sheet folded twice to give eight pages, to 1570, and the musical quarto di tono to 1695;[11] German took Quarto as a printing term about 1700.[11] The feminine quarta became a noun by ellipsis: the fourth class at school, the fourth gear of a car (1929), a musical interval (1556); partire in quarta “to start at full speed” is from 1943.[2][3] Set phrases include the quarto potere, the press, and the Quarto Stato, the proletariat.[12][13]

Timeline

  • 1230–1260 – The Decime mugellane use quarto for the one in fourth place.[2]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it as the ordinal “fourth”.[2]
  • Late 13th century – The Novellino has it for a fourth part.[2]
  • Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi has quartana, a fever that returns every fourth day.[2]
  • 1518–1525 – Firenzuola uses it for a quarter of a slaughtered animal.[2]
  • 1570 – The printing sense, the quarto format, is recorded.[11]
  • 1695 – Quarto di tono, a quarter tone, is recorded in music.[11]
  • 1929 – Quarta is recorded for the fourth gear of a car.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. fourth: coming after the third in a series: Lavoro al quarto piano di quel palazzo.[4][14][13]
  2. After the name of a ruler or pope, written in Roman numerals: Enrico IV.[4][14]
  3. Il quarto secolo: the years 301 to 400 (Devoto–Oli) or 300 to 399 (GRADIT).[4][14]

Noun

  1. The fourth person or thing in a series: È arrivato quarto nella gara di nuoto.[4][15]
  2. A quarter, one of four equal parts of a whole: Ho mangiato solo un quarto della pizza..[4][15][1]
  3. A quarter of a unit of measure, especially a quarter of a litre of wine: un quarto di rosso.[4][15]
  4. One of the four parts into which a slaughtered or cooked animal is cut: un quarto di agnello arrosto.[4][2]
  5. (printing) The quarto format.[11][4]
  6. (heraldry) A quarter of the shield.[2]

Word family

  • quarta
  • quartana
  • quartetto
  • quartina
  • quartino
  • quartultimo
  • squartare
  • quartazione
  • quartara
  • quartarolo

Usage notes

Un quarto d'ora is fifteen minutes;[4][9] passare un brutto quarto d'ora is to have a bad time of it.[4][9] Di quart'ordine means “of very poor quality”.[4][14] A different noun quarto “apartment, suite of rooms”, from Spanish cuarto, was used in the 17th and 18th centuries.[10][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3174
  9. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  11. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  12. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ 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
  15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse