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rastrello

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word rastrello

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1292 before 1292, Bono Giamboni More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin *rastrellum
Ultimate origin
Latin rādō

Pronunciation

  • /rasˈtrɛl.lo/[1]

Forms

rastrello m (plural rastrelli)[1] The older and popular form is rastello.[2][3][1] Old Italian forms include rastello, rastelo, rastrel and restello.[4] An old plural was feminine, le rastrella.[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *rastrĕllum, a form of Latin rastĕllus (“small rake”) with an /r/ taken from rāstrum (“rake”), the noun it is the diminutive of.[7][8][9][6][10] The TLIO and the DEI explain the inserted /r/ by an old association with the base noun.[4][11] Treccani, Prati and Gabrielli derive the word directly from the Latin diminutive.[12][13][14] The same thing happened in Spanish, where Spanish rastrillo stands beside rastillo.[11][15][16]

The plain form is continued by rastello, French râteau, Old Occitan rastel and Catalan rastell.[16][17] The form with /r/ is already Old Italian.[16][17] The Latin diminutive is formed with the suffix -ellus.[18][1] Its base noun comes from rādō (“to scrape”) with the instrument suffix -trum.[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni's Italian version of Vegetius, before 1292, where rakes are listed with mattocks and shovels among the tools soldiers must keep ready for building a defensive ditch.[4][7][5] The sense is the farm tool with teeth on a long handle, used to gather or move hay, stones or brushwood, or to level the ground.[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for things shaped like a rake: a toothed part of the loom that wound the warp on the beam, a barrier of bars closing an entrance, and a heraldic figure, the label, which stood for the house of Anjou.[4] A rastrello meant “side by side, like the teeth of a rake”.[4] The rack above a manger became the rastrelliera (before 1471), later also a plate rack and a gun rack.[7]

The verb rastrellare is used figuratively by Poliziano (1477–1479) and of raking hay in 1561.[7] In the First World War it came to mean sweeping an area with troops to clear the remaining enemy, a metaphor Silvagni still criticised in 1938, and rastrellamento followed in 1926.[7] In the 20th century the noun was applied to the hay-raking machine and to the croupier's rake, both recorded in 1959.[7] In Sicily the word means a gate, as in Verga's dinanzi al rastrello dell'orto “in front of the garden gate”.[2][14]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses rastrelli in his version of Vegetius.[4][7]
  • Before 1471 – Rastrelliera “hay rack” is recorded.[7]
  • 1477–1479 – Poliziano uses rastrellare figuratively.[7]
  • 1561 – Rastrellar il fieno “to rake the hay” is recorded.[7]
  • 1926 – Rastrellare “to comb an area with troops” and rastrellamento are recorded.[7]
  • 1959 – The hay-raking machine and the croupier's rake are recorded.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. rake: a tool with a toothed crossbar on a long handle, for gathering grass, hay and straw or clearing leaves and gravel: pulire il vialetto con il rastrello.[8][2][6][1]
  2. (agriculture) A hay-raking machine with curved teeth set in parallel planes.[8][2][9]
  3. (gambling) The croupier's rake for gathering in the losing stakes.[8][2][6]
  4. (metallurgy) A founder's rake for gathering embers and slag.[2][12]
  5. (fishing) A rake for gathering clams and other shellfish from the sand.[8][12]
  6. (heraldry) A charge like a label with long square teeth.[8][12]
  7. (historical) A palisade or grating closing the gates of a fortress or town.[8][2][9]
  8. (regional) A gate.[8][2][9]
  9. (nautical, historical) On warships, a set of cords for drying the crew's washing.[8][2][9]
  10. (hunting) In caccia a rastrello: a drive in which the hunters advance side by side and shoot the game they raise.[2][9][12]

Word family

  • rastrellare
  • rastrelliera
  • rastrellamento
  • rastrellata
  • rastrellina

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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  3. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  5. ^ 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, 535
  6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ 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
  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 f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3211
  12. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 826
  14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  16. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  17. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  18. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Rastrello.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/rastrello. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·