Etymologically
Log in

quattro

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 19:38. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkwat.tro/[1]

Forms

quattro (invariable; also a masculine noun, invariable; elided quattr’ in some phrases)[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quattuor (“four”), through a spoken form quattor in which the ⟨u⟩ before the ending had dropped.[3][4] The Latin numeral is panromance: French quatre, Occitan quatre, Catalan quatre, Spanish cuatro, Portuguese quatro, Sardinian battor and Romanian patru.[4][5]

Like all the basic numerals, the Latin word belongs to the oldest Indo-European vocabulary: it comes from Proto-Italic *kʷettwōr and Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres, which was declined as a plural.[4][1][6] Its relatives include Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares), Sanskrit चत्वारः (catvā́ras), Lithuanian keturi, Old Church Slavonic четыре (četyre), Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂 (fidwōr), Irish ceathair, English four and German vier.[4][6] The ⟨a⟩ of the Latin form is unexpected beside Oscan petora: de Vaan thinks it came from case forms and compounds with a zero-grade root, while Wiktionary calls the change unexplained.[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is the form quatru in an inventory from Fondi in the 12th century, where the canons owe the sacristan four measures of grain; the Tuscan quattro appears in 1211, in the account book of a group of Florentine bankers.[3][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Besides the plain number, quattro came to mean “a few, a small amount”, a use DELI first finds in Francesco Berni before 1535: fare quattro passi is to take a short walk, quattro soldi a trifling sum.[3][8][9] Many set phrases rest on it, such as a quattr’occhi “in private, face to face” (1585, Giovanni Maria Cecchi), farsi in quattro “to go to great lengths”, gridare ai quattro venti “to shout from the rooftops” and fare il diavolo a quattro “to make a terrible fuss”.[3][10][2]

Its compound quattrocento “four hundred” (late 13th century, Novellino) came to name the 15th century (before 1799, Parini), which gave quattrocentista, an artist of that century (1826) and later a 400-metre runner (1950).[3][4] In music, quattro named a piece for four instruments in the 18th century, and German took it over as Quattro in 1774.[11]

Timeline

  • 12th century – quatru in an inventory from Fondi.[3]
  • 1211 – quattro in a Florentine bankers' account book.[3][8]
  • Late 13th century – quattrocento “four hundred” in the Novellino.[3]
  • Before 1535 – Francesco Berni uses quattro for “a few”.[3]
  • 1585 – Giovanni Maria Cecchi uses a quattr’occhi.[3]
  • 1774 – German Quattro “a piece for four voices” is recorded.[11]
  • Before 1799 – Giuseppe Parini uses Quattrocento for the 15th century.[3]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. four, three plus one: Ho comprato quattro sedie per la cucina.[8][12][9]
  2. After a noun, fourth in a series: capitolo quattro, pagina quattro.[8][9]
  3. A few, a small amount: fare quattro passi, scambiare quattro chiacchiere, quattro soldi.[8][9][10]

Noun

  1. The number four, and the figure 4.[8][9]
  2. The fourth day of a month, or the year four of a century: il quattro marzo.[8]

Word family

  • quattrocento
  • quattromila
  • quattrocchi
  • quattrocentesco
  • quattrocentista
  • quattrocentesimo

Usage notes

Quattro elides in a few fixed phrases: a quattr’occhi and in quattro e quattr’otto “in no time at all”.[2][8] Dirne quattro to someone is to give them a piece of one's mind.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 103
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  11. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier