sartore

Forms

sartore m (plural sartori, feminine sartora)^[1] Old Italian forms include sartor, sertori and sortor.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin sartōrem (“mender, patcher”), the accusative of the Latin noun, while sarto continues the nominative.^[3][4][5][1] Nocentini counts the nominative form among the rare Italian words that continue that case, like ladro, moglie and uomo, and notes that it won out over the accusative form.^[4]

The Latin word is an agent noun from Latin sarciō (“to mend, patch”), formed on its past participle sartus.^[3][6][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *sark-je/o- and Proto-Indo-European *srk-ie/o- (“to make good, emend”), and compares Ancient Greek ἕρκος (hérkos, “fence, enclosure”).^[7][4]

The same Latin noun gave Friulian sartor, Occitan sartre, Spanish sastre and Portuguese xastre.^[8][4] Meyer-Lübke explains the forms with ⟨st⟩ by dissimilation of the two ⟨r⟩ sounds.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Sienese poet Ruggieri Apugliese, in the mid-13th century, who lists among the skills he boasts of being bom sartore, “a good tailor”.^[2][9] The sense was the same as that of sarto: one who makes clothes as a trade.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Brunetto Latini names l'arte de' sartori beside the smiths and the cloth-makers among the crafts done with hands and feet, and Dante compares the souls peering at him in the dark to an old tailor squinting at the eye of his needle: come 'l vecchio sartor fa nella cruna.^[9][10] In the Paradiso he stops come buon sartore who cuts the gown to the cloth he has.^[10]

DELI notes that sartore disappeared from the literary language from the end of the 15th century, but stayed alive in many dialects.^[3] The modern dictionaries mark it as archaic or regional: Devoto–Oli places it in the north, Wiktionary also in Rome.^[11][12][1] Pirandello still uses it, for a barber who was also a tailor.^[5] Its diminutive sartorello is mostly scornful, and the feminine sartorella is the more usual form.^[5]

The noun sartoria, a tailor's shop, is formed on sartore: it is recorded in the Medieval Latin of Venice in 1219 and in Italian in 1476, in Masuccio Salernitano.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1219 – Sartoria is recorded in the Medieval Latin of Venice.^[3]
• Mid-13th century – Ruggieri Apugliese calls himself a bom sartore.^[2][9]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses sartore and sartor in the Divine Comedy.^[3][10]
• 1476 – Masuccio Salernitano uses sartoria.^[3]
• End of the 15th century – the word leaves the literary language and lives on in dialects.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic, regional) A tailor, the same as sarto: In paese il sartore faceva anche il barbiere.^{[11][12][13][1]}

Word family

• sartoria
• sartora
• sartorella
• sartoressa

Related words

• sarto
• Latin sartor

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. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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, p. 17, 583
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse