Etymologically
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rotto

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Pronunciation

Forms

rotto (feminine rotta, masculine plural rotti, feminine plural rotte)[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian roto, Old Italian ropto, Old Italian ruptu and Old Italian ruttu.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ruptus (“broken, burst”), the past participle of rumpō (“to break, to burst”), and it serves as the past participle of rompere.[3][4][5][1] The same participle gave the noun rotta.[3] The verb is panromance: French rompre, Spanish romper, Portuguese romper and Romanian rupe.[4][6]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to a nasal present Proto-Indo-European *Hru-n-p- (“to break”), beside an aorist *Hreup-, with cognates in Sanskrit and in Old English rēofan (“to break, to tear”).[7] Nocentini compares Old High German roufen (“to pluck”) and roubōn (“to rob”), the source of roba.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record of the participle and adjective is in Guittone d'Arezzo, who died in 1294, in the sense “broken, smashed”: tame birds, he writes, have their feathers “rotto e disviate” (broken and ruffled).[3][2] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the adjective to the 14th century.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

By the early 14th century the adjective also meant bruised and battered (Iacopone da Todi), and Dante used it for someone hardened or used to something, often in a bad sense.[3] Dante's sasso rotto is a cleft in the rock, and the noun rotto, a break or tear, is in Boccaccio's Decameron, where a hand is put “per lo rotto dell'asse” (through the break in the plank).[8][3]

Passare per il rotto della cuffia (to get through the tear in the bonnet), to get away with something by a whisker, goes back to the 15th-century Pataffio (uscire pel rotto della cuffia).[3][9] The plural rotti, the odd amount above a round figure, is recorded in 1863.[3] Modern use adds a machine that does not work and a player injured in a match.[10][5]

Timeline

  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses rotto for “broken”.[3]
  • Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses it for “bruised, battered”.[3]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “used to, hardened”.[3]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses the noun rotto, a break.[3]
  • 15th century – Uscire pel rotto della cuffia appears in the Pataffio.[3]
  • 1863 – Rotti for the odd amount above a round sum is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. broken, in pieces, smashed or cracked: un piatto rotto.[10][5][9][1]
  2. Of a bone, fractured: Ha una gamba rotta e non può camminare.[10][5][11]
  3. Of clothes and shoes, torn, full of holes: Ha sempre i jeans rotti sulle ginocchia.[10][5][9]
  4. Of a machine or device, out of order: La lavastoviglie è rotta da una settimana.[10][5][9][11]
  5. Aching and worn out, (sport) injured: Dopo il trasloco mi sento tutto rotto.[10][5][12]
  6. Of the voice, broken by emotion; interrupted: Ha risposto con la voce rotta.[10][5][9][11]
  7. (figurative) Of a relationship or a situation, broken off.[10]
  8. Hardened, used to something through long experience (with a): un uomo rotto alla fatica.[10][5][9][12]

Noun

  1. (rare) A break, a tear: un rotto nella manica.[9][12][13]
  2. (plural) The odd amount above a round figure: Costa trenta euro e rotti.[9][11][12][13]

Word family

  • rottame
  • rottamente
  • rottezza
  • rottume

Usage notes

Per il rotto della cuffia (by the skin of one's teeth) is a fixed phrase: passare, farcela or cavarsela per il rotto della cuffia.[9][11][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3289
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli