Etymologically
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rubato

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Pronunciation

Forms

rubato (feminine rubata, masculine plural rubati, feminine plural rubate)[1] Old Italian forms include robato, robata and rubata;[2] the GDLI also lists robao and robbato.[3]

Etymology

It is the past participle of rubare “to steal”, used as an adjective and a noun.[4][5][6] The verb, older Old Italian robare (before 1294, Guittone d'Arezzo), comes from Proto-West Germanic *raubōn (“to plunder”), a derivative of *rauba (“booty”), the source of roba.[4][5][1] The same verb is Old High German roubōn (modern German rauben), and the Romance cognates are Old French rober, Old Occitan raubar, Catalan robar, Spanish robar and Portuguese roubar.[5][7]

DELI quotes Devoto's view that the word entered Italian late, since an early loan would have weakened ⟨b⟩ to ⟨v⟩, but before the Carolingian age, since it kept the sense “booty” and not the Frankish sense “goods”; the ⟨b⟩ is the main difficulty.[4] Meyer-Lübke found Braune's derivation from a Lombardic *rūbōn phonetically doubtful and unnecessary.[7] Wiktionary has the verb pass through Late Latin raubāre.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Dino Compagni's Cronica of 1310–1312, a Florentine text, with the sense “taken from its rightful owner, mostly by force”.[2] DELI dates the participle to the 14th century, citing Giovanni Villani, Franco Sacchetti and the Vite dei Santi Padri.[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used rubato for things unlawful or dishonest, for a person or place that had been robbed or sacked, and for someone carried off by force.[2] Old Italian distinguished involare, taking by stealth, from rubare, taking by force, as Mengaldo showed in 1961.[4] Tommaseo cites rubato in Davanzati's Tacitus for a young man “stolen” by an early death, and the phrase tempo rubato for time taken from one task and given to another.[8]

In music tempo rubato, time played with some freedom from the strict values of the notes for expressive effect, is recorded in 1804 in D'Alberti's dictionary.[4][9] English has had rubato as a musical term since the late 18th century and the noun since 1883;[9] German has it from 1838 and French from 1907.[9] In modern Italian the figurative uses cover what is obtained secretly or without merit: baci rubati, foto rubata, a photograph taken without the subject knowing, and a vittoria rubata.[6][10]

Timeline

  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses the verb in the form robare.[4]
  • 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses rubato “stolen”.[2]
  • Late 18th century – English takes rubato as a musical term.[9]
  • 1804 – D'Alberti records the musical sense.[4][9]
  • 1838 – German rubato is recorded.[9]
  • 1872 – Tommaseo–Bellini records rubare il tempo in music.[4]
  • 1907 – French rubato is recorded.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. stolen, taken by theft: La polizia ha ritrovato l'auto rubata.[11][6][12]
  2. (figurative) Obtained undeservedly, by luck or by a mistake of the referee: un punto rubato all'ultimo minuto.[6][12][13]
  3. (figurative) Snatched in secret or in haste: baci rubati; of a photograph, taken without the subject knowing.[6][10]
  4. (music) Of tempo: played with expressive freedom from the strict note values: tempo rubato.[11][6][13]

Noun

  1. (music) rubato, tempo rubato.[13][10][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 193
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  10. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana