sagrato

Forms

sagrato m (plural sagrati)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sacrātus (“consecrated”), the past participle of sacrō (“to consecrate”), used as a noun for consecrated ground.^[2][3][4][1] Treccani takes it from the neuter form.^[5] The verb is formed from sacer (“sacred”) (on sacro).^[3][6][1] The voicing of Latin /k/ to /g/ before /r/ gives the popular form; the older and literary form sacrato keeps the Latin consonant.^[7][5][8]

The same participle gave French sacré, Occitan sagrat, Catalan sagrat, Spanish sagrado and Portuguese sagrado.^[3] In those languages it replaced the older adjective as the word for “holy”.^[3] As a noun the Italian word names the space in front of a church, while the Occitan one also means “cemetery” and the Spanish one also “asylum, refuge”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Domenico Cavalca (before 1342), with the sense “consecrated ground”.^[2] Nocentini and GRADIT date the word to the 13th century.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The consecrated ground beside or in front of the church was where Christians who died in grace were buried, and it originally enjoyed immunity and the right of asylum.^[2][5][9] Antonio Pucci tells of a man buried at the foot of a bridge siccome indegno d'essere in sagrato, “as unworthy of being in consecrated ground”, and Franco Sacchetti writes of sending a body a sotterrare in sagrato.^[10][5] In some places sagrato meant above all the churchyard cemetery.^[10]

Burials in front of churches went on until the 19th century.^[5] Today the cemetery sense is old-fashioned, and the word names the forecourt of a church, often raised a few steps above the street and closed off by a railing or balustrade.^[4][7][11]

Timeline

• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for consecrated ground.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The consecrated space in front of the main entrance of a church, the parvis: Gli invitati attendevano sul sagrato.^{[4][7][12][1]}
2. (archaic) Consecrated ground beside a church where the faithful were buried, a churchyard.^[4][7][9]

Related words

• sacrato
• sacrare
• consacrare
• sacro

Usage notes

A separate sagrato is the past participle of sagrare “to swear, curse”: as an adjective it means “damned” in blasphemous exclamations, and as a noun an oath or curse, as in tirare sagrati.^[4][7][9][5] It is recorded from 1791 or the 18th century and is popular or uncommon.^[7][11][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana