quatto

Forms

quatto (feminine quatta, masculine plural quatti, feminine plural quatte)^[1] Tuscan has guatto, also found in Lucca and Naples, and the northern dialects have forms such as Genoese quaccio and Mantuan quàc.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin coāctus (“gathered, compressed”), the past participle of cōgō (“to gather, compress, force”).^[4][5][6][7] It is the popular word beside the learned coatto, and Devoto calls the change of the first syllable to ⟨qua⟩ normal.^[8][9] The Latin verb is formed co- with agō (“to drive”).^[1]

The same participle gave Dalmatian skwáć (“quiet”), Occitan quait and Spanish gacho (“bent, drooping”).^[2][5][10] The LEI sorts the Italian outcomes by sense: “crushed, timid”, “bent, crouching”, “quiet” and “hidden”.^[2]

Lurati proposed instead Latin quiētus (“quiet”), through acquattare taken as a variant of acquietare, which would explain the change of the unstressed vowel.^[4] The LEI finds that origin hard to accept on phonetic grounds.^[2] Muratori had thought of a Germanic word for “sentry”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Inferno (before 1321), always doubled: O tu che siedi / tra li scheggion del ponte quatto quatto, “O you who sit crouching among the crags of the bridge”.^[4][12][11] The sense is “bent low so as to hide from sight”.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

By the late 14th century the word also meant “silent and hidden”: Antonio Pucci, who died in 1388, uses it so.^[4] Old Italian had rarer extensions too, “far away” and “humble, well disposed”.^[12] Boccaccio has the line Io mi levai dal luogo ov'era quatto / stato ad udire, “I rose from the place where I had crouched to listen”.^[13][7]

The adverb quattoni, “stealthily”, also doubled as quatton quattone, was formed in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[14][15] As a regional noun the word names an animal's lair, used by Mario Rigoni Stern in 1986.^[14][6]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses quatto quatto in the Inferno.^[4][12]
• Before 1321 – The derived verb acquattare is recorded.^[5]
• Before 1388 – Antonio Pucci uses quatto for “silent and hidden”.^[4]
• 1986 – Rigoni Stern uses quatto for a lair.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Crouching, huddled and silent so as not to be seen, usually doubled: Il gatto aspettava quatto quatto sotto la siepe.^{[6][16][8][3]}
2. By extension, silent, stealthy: uscire quatto quatto dalla sala.^{[6][16][3][17]}

Noun

1. (regional) A lair, an animal's resting place.^[6][14]

Word family

• acquattare
• quattamente
• quattoni

Related words

• coatto
• Latin coactus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 139
3. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 99
12. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 100
15. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3175
16. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli