ruotare

Forms

ruotare (first-person singular present ruòto, first-person singular past historic ruotài, past participle ruotàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The older and literary form is rotare, which is also central and southern.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rotāre (“to turn round like a wheel”), a verb formed from rota (“wheel”).^{[5][6][2][7][1]} The Latin verb lives on in Occitan rodar, Catalan rodar, Spanish rodar and Portuguese rodar, and in French rouer.^[8][9] Zingarelli calls the Italian verb learned.^[3] The spelling with ⟨uo⟩ comes from the stressed forms such as ⟨ruòto⟩, after ruota, and has spread to the unstressed forms too.^[4][10][7]

De Vaan takes the Latin noun as the feminine of an old adjective meaning “revolving”, from Proto-Indo-European *Hret- (“to run, roll”).^[11] The same root gives Sanskrit रथ (rátha, “chariot”), Lithuanian rãtas (“wheel”) and Old High German rad (“wheel”).^[11][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giamboni's Vizi e virtù, before 1292, where rotare means “to move turning round”, and also transitive, “to turn round fast and with force”.^[12][5][6] Giamboni also uses it of a horse galloping in circles: e cominciò per lo campo a rotare (“and began to wheel about the field”).^[7]

Semantic evolution

Dante used the verb for flying in wide circles (1300–1313), of Geryon descending: Rota e discende (“it wheels and descends”).^[12][7] In the 14th century the verb could also mean “to grind, sharpen” like arrotare, as in a Sienese statute that prices ruote da rotare.^[13][14] An old sense was “to put to the wheel”, the torture or execution.^[6][7]

Modern Italian uses it for bodies turning on their axis or round another body, and figuratively for everything “revolving” around a person or a theme.^[6][2][3] In farming it means to rotate crops, and in work to rotate shifts.^[6][7]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Giamboni uses rotare for moving in a circle.^[12]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for flying in wide circles.^[12]
• 14th century – Rotare is used for grinding or sharpening.^[14]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the present participle rotante.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To rotate or revolve: to turn on its own axis or round another body: Il disco ruota a grande velocità.^[6][2][4]
2. (intransitive) To circle, to fly in wide circles, as birds of prey or aircraft do.^[6][2][1]
3. (intransitive, figurative) To revolve or centre on someone or something: Tutta la discussione ruotava sul bilancio.^[2][4][3]
4. (transitive) To turn something round its axis: ruotare la chiave nella serratura.^[6][4]
5. (transitive) To swing or turn the body or a part of it, or one's gaze; to whirl a weapon, as with roteare.^[6][3]
6. (transitive) To alternate crops, shifts and the like, as with avvicendare.^[6][2][7]
7. (transitive, uncommon) To polish floors or other surfaces with a machine, as with arrotare.^[2][7]
8. (transitive, historical) To put to the breaking wheel.^[6][10]

Word family

• rotante
• rotativo
• rotatorio
• rotamento
• rotatore
• rotatura
• rotabile

Related words

• ruota
• roteare
• arrotare
• Latin rota

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated with avere.^[1][15] The diphthong ⟨uo⟩ is used in stressed syllables (ruòto) and now also mostly in unstressed ones (ruotava, ruotando), except in the present participle, where rotante is commoner than ruotante.^[15][7][4] The form rotare is popular or literary, and pronominal rotarsi is literary: Foscolo writes chi vide / Sotto l'etereo padiglion rotarsi / Più mondi (“who saw more worlds revolve beneath the ethereal canopy”).^[2][3]

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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
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 g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3287
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana