retro

Forms

retro m (invariable)^[1] Old forms include dereto, reto, rieto and rietro.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin retrō (“backwards, behind”).^[2][4][5] Wiktionary treats it as inherited instead.^[1] The Latin adverb is formed from the prefix re- (“back”) and the adverbial suffix seen in intrō (“inside”) and citrō (“on this side”); from about 300 it was also used as a preposition.^[2][4][6]

The popular outcome of the Latin word is Old French riere, Old Occitan reire and old Spanish riedro; in Italian the inherited form lives on in dietro.^[4][7][8] De Vaan accepts Klingenschmitt's derivation of the Latin prefix from Proto-Indo-European *ure (“back”) as the only acceptable etymology.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Forms with de come first: dereto in the inscription of San Clemente in Rome at the end of the 11th century and de retro in a Bolognese memorandum of 1282.^[2] Dante uses retro for “behind” in the Commedia (1300–1313): pregando Stazio che venisse retro (“asking Statius to come behind”).^[2][5][10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian retro was an adverb and, with a or di, a preposition meaning “behind”;^[2][11] Dante also used it for “backwards”.^[2][11] By the 19th century the word was literary, and Tommaseo and Bellini found it alive mainly in compounds.^[12]

As a noun, “the back part of something”, it appears in Carducci's “a c. 43 retro del codice” (1859), meaning the back of a leaf, and in the dictionaries from 1959.^[2] It now names the back of a sheet, a coin or a building, and in colloquial speech it is short for retrobottega (the back shop) and, as a feminine noun, for retromarcia (reverse gear).^[5][11] Latin vade retro, Satana is used jokingly to reject something unwelcome.^[11][13]

Timeline

• End of the 11th century – Dereto appears in the inscription of San Clemente.^[2]
• 1282 – De retro is recorded in a Bolognese memorandum.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses retro for “behind”.^[2][5]
• 1859 – Carducci uses retro for the back of a manuscript leaf.^[2]
• 1959 – The noun “back part” is recorded in a dictionary.^[2][14]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (literary) behind, also a retro and di retro, (rare) backwards.^[5][11][13]

Noun

1. The back of a sheet, page or envelope, the verso: Ha scritto l'indirizzo sul retro della cartolina.^[5][11][10]
2. The reverse of a coin or medal.^[5][10]
3. The back of a building, opposite the front: Il garage è sul retro.^[5][11]
4. (colloquial) The back room of a shop, short for retrobottega.^[5][10][15]

Word family

• arretrare
• arretrato
• arretratezza

Related words

• dietro
• retrobottega
• retromarcia
• retrogrado
• rétro
• Latin retro

Usage notes

Vedi retro (“see over”) tells the reader to turn the page, and fronte retro means “double-sided”.^[5][13] As a feminine noun, la retro is colloquial for retromarcia.^[5] The adjective rétro “retro, old-fashioned” is a separate word, borrowed from French in 1980.^[11][14][13]

References

1. ^ a b c 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. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 934
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ 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 c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b 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