rado

Forms

rado (feminine rada, masculine plural radi, feminine plural rade)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rārus (“loose, sparse, rare”), with the second /r/ changed to /d/ by dissimilation; raro is the same Latin word.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Devoto suggests the change may have been a reaction against the southern use of /r/ for /d/, as in Sicilian niru for nido.^[6] DEI notes that the dissimilation is lacking in the dialects.^[7] Popular outcomes of the Latin word are Old French rer, Spanish ralo, Romanian rar and Friulian rar.^[3][8]

The Latin adjective is the opposite of dēnsus, and its origin is unclear.^[9][1] It has been connected with a root meaning “to disappear” and with Ancient Greek ἐρῆμος (erêmos, “lonely”), but Schrijver rejects all the proposals.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the first record to 1260–61.^[3] The earliest quotations DELI gives are Giamboni's, before 1292, in the phrase rade volte “seldom”, and Brunetto Latini's adverb rado “seldom”, before 1294.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante used the word for what is not compact, as in Nuvole spesse non paion né rade “clouds neither thick nor thin appear”, for what is “few” (radi sono, 1304–08), and the phrase di rado “seldom”; his Parlavan rado, con voci soavi “they spoke seldom, with gentle voices” keeps the adverb.^[2][10][11] The sense “not thick”, of plants or soil, is in the translation of Crescenzi, about 1350.^[2]

Later scientific prose used rado for bodies with little matter in much space, such as snow.^[10] The older senses “rare, singular” and, in Alfieri, “unwilling” have gone out of use.^[12][13] The verb diradare “to thin out” is recorded before 1321, and radura, a clearing in a wood, from 1789.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1260–1261 – First record of rado.^[3]
• Before 1292 – Giamboni writes rade volte “seldom”.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses the adverb rado.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses di rado “seldom”.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Diradare “to thin out” appears.^[3]
• 1789 – Radura “clearing” is recorded.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Loose, not compact; thin, rarefied: una nebbia rada.^{[4][5][13][12]}
2. Of fabric: loosely woven, with wide meshes.^[4][12]
3. sparse, thin, not dense: una siepe rada, ciglia rade.^[4][5][14]
4. Few and far between; scarce: Lungo la strada si vedevano poche case rade.^[4][14][5]
5. infrequent, happening at long intervals: Le sue telefonate si erano fatte più rade.^[4][5][14]
6. (archaic) Rare, singular.^[4][12]

Adverb

1. (literary) seldom, rarely.^{[4][5][14][11]}

Word family

• diradare
• radura
• radezza
• radamente
• radore
• radume

Related words

• raro
• Latin rarus

Usage notes

Di rado means “seldom” and non di rado “quite often”.^[4][5][12] Rado is also a variant name of radon, the radioactive gas.^{[4][12][13][15]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 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 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. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3195
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 284
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli