sarto

Forms

sarto m (plural sarti, feminine sarta)^[1] The old and literary form is sartore, and the feminine sartora is also recorded.^[2][3] Popular sarte is widespread, in Veneto also for a woman.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin sartor (“mender, patcher”), from the nominative, not the accusative sartōrem.^[5][6][7][1] It is one of the rare Italian nouns that continue a Latin nominative, as do ladro, moglie and uomo.^[6][5] The form sartore, from the accusative, competed with it, disappeared from the literary language by the end of the 15th century, but lives on in many dialects.^[5][6] It is the usual type in the whole of the North and in Ciociaria and the Abruzzi, while the South says cucitore and Sicily uses a loan from French, Sicilian custuriere.^[8]

The same Latin word gave Occitan sartre, Catalan sartre and Friulian sartor, and with dissimilation of ⟨r⟩ to ⟨s⟩ Spanish sastre and Portuguese xastre.^[6][9][8]

The Latin noun is an agent noun from sartus, the past participle of sarciō (“to mend, patch”).^[5][10][1] DEI cites the sense “mender” from Augustine, while the OLD knows the classical word only as “hoer”, from sāriō.^[8][11] De Vaan derives the verb from Proto-Italic *sark-je/o- and the Indo-European root of Hittite šarnink- (“to compensate”) and Ancient Greek ἕρκος (hérkos, “fence, enclosure”).^[12][6] Devoto saw no clear connections outside Latin.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a document from Prato of 1245, where the word means one who makes clothes as a trade.^[14][6] DELI gives sartore before 1321 in Dante and sarto before 1348 in Francesco da Barberino, who warns against “the tailor who does not want to be watched when he cuts”.^[5][4][15]

Semantic evolution

A woman tailor is sarta.^[5][6] DELI's first record is in Machiavelli, before 1527.^[5] Nocentini dates the word 1357.^[6] Sartoria, the tailor's shop and the trade, goes back to Medieval Latin at Venice in 1219, and the Italian word is in Masuccio Salernitano in 1476.^[5] The Venetian document of 1219 also has sartoresa for a woman tailor.^[8]

The sarto is also the head of a fashion house who designs and presents the models, a designer, and a costume maker for the stage and the cinema.^[7][16] Sartoriale (before 1916, Guido Gozzano) follows English sartorial, and the sartorio, the long thigh muscle (before 1673), is named after the crossed legs of a tailor at work.^[5][6] Many surnames come from sarto and sartore: Sarteschi, Sartorelli, Sartoretti.^[3]

Timeline

• 1219 – Medieval Latin sartoria and sartoresa are recorded at Venice.^[5][8]
• 1245 – A document from Prato has sarto.^[14][6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses sartore.^[5]
• Before 1348 – Francesco da Barberino uses sarto.^[5][4]
• 1476 – Sartoria appears in Masuccio Salernitano.^[5]
• Before 1527 – Machiavelli uses sarta.^[5]
• Before 1673 – Sartorio, the thigh muscle, is recorded.^[5]
• Before 1916 – Guido Gozzano uses sartoriale.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tailor: one who cuts, sews and makes clothes to measure: un sarto da uomo, un sarto da donna.^[7][17][18]
2. The head of a fashion house who creates its models; a designer.^[7][16][2]
3. A theatre or film costume designer.^[7][16]
4. (zoology) uccello sarto: the tailorbird, a small songbird that sews leaves together for its nest.^[16][17]

Word family

• sarta
• sartoria
• sartoriale
• sartorio
• sartina

Related words

• risarcire
• Latin sartor

Usage notes

Metro da sarto is the tailor's tape measure and pietra da sarto the tailor's chalk.^[7][16] A Tuscan proverb says Il sarto fa il mantello secondo il panno, “the tailor makes the cloak according to the cloth”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 875
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3344
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli