salto

Forms

salto m (plural salti)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin saltus (“a jump, leap”), through its accusative.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun was formed from saliō (“to jump”) with the suffix of action nouns -tus.^[4][1] DELI treats it together with the verb saltare, from saltō (“to dance, jump”), a frequentative of the same verb.^[5][2]

The same word is Romanian salt, French saut, Old Occitan saut, Catalan salt, Spanish salto, Portuguese salto and Sardinian saltu.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated sense, before 1294 in Brunetto Latini, is figurative: a quick passage from one point to another, a gap or an omission.^[5][3] The bodily sense of a jump, the movement by which the body leaves the ground, is first dated about 1336 in Boccaccio.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Before 1321 Dante uses salto for a dance, a sense now obsolete.^[5][8] In the Decameron a man prese un salto (“took a leap”) over a tomb to escape his tormentors.^[9][10] The athletic sense, the series of movements that carry the body off the ground and back to it, is first dated before 1612 in Giovanni de' Bardi,^[5][11] and the specialities followed: salto in alto (high jump), salto in lungo (long jump), salto con l'asta (pole vault) and salto mortale, a somersault in the air, recorded by DEI in the 16th century.^[3][12][13]

Before 1638 Gabriello Chiabrera uses the word for a short trip or a brief visit, the sense of the modern fare un salto “to pop over”.^[5][3] A sudden drop in level, as of a waterfall, is recorded in 1875.^[5][8] In music a salto is a leap between two notes that are not next to each other.^[11][8] Many figurative phrases grew up around the word, such as salto nel buio (a leap in the dark), salto di qualità (a step up) and fare i salti mortali (to bend over backwards).^[3][12][14]

French borrowed the musical sense in 1703 and the athletic one in 1971,^[11] German has Salto for a somersault since 1813,^[11] and English took salto as a gymnastics term in 1972.^[11]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses salto for a quick passage or a gap.^[5][3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for a dance.^[5]
• About 1336 – Boccaccio uses it for a jump.^[5]
• 16th century – Salto mortale, a somersault in the air, is recorded.^[13]
• Before 1612 – Giovanni de' Bardi uses it for the athletic jump.^[5][11]
• Before 1638 – Chiabrera uses it for a quick trip or short visit.^[5]
• 1703 – French borrows salto as a musical term.^[11]
• 1813 – German Salto “somersault” is first recorded.^[11]
• 1875 – The sense of a sudden drop in level is recorded.^[5]
• 1972 – English salto is first recorded as a gymnastics term.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A jump or leap: the movement by which a person or animal pushes off the ground and lands in the same place or elsewhere: Il gatto è arrivato sul tavolo con un salto.^[3][15][14]
2. A bounce of an object.^[3][15]
3. A quick trip somewhere, or a short visit: Domani faccio un salto in centro.^[3][15][14]
4. (sport) A jumping event in athletics, skiing or riding: salto in alto, salto in lungo, salto con l'asta.^[3][15][12]
5. A sudden change, upwards or downwards, in a situation or a quantity: un salto nei consumi.^[8][1]
6. A drop in level, as of a waterfall; in music, an interval between two notes that are not next to each other.^[8][1]
7. A gap or an omission in a text or a sequence.^[8][1]
8. (obsolete) A dance.^[8][5]

Word family

• saltello
• salterello
• saltuario
• soprassalto
• saltellare
• risalto

Related words

• saltare
• salire
• Latin saltus

Usage notes

Fare due salti or quattro salti is a colloquial way of saying “to have a little dance” among friends.^[3][12] Two rare homographs are listed separately: salto “wooded mountain pasture”, from Latin saltus (“wooded pass, forest pasture”) (Dante: esser non puote / che per diversi salti non si spanda), whose Latin origin is uncertain,^{[3][9][4][1][13]} and salto “assault”, a shortened form of assalto, used by Machiavelli.^[3][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3324
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier