stretto

Forms

stretto (feminine stretta, masculine plural stretti, feminine plural strette, superlative strettissimo)^[1] The Tuscan form strinto is recorded from the late 13th century and is still used in Tuscany.^[2] Old texts also have strecto, streto and strito.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin strictus (“tight, dense; strict”), the past participle of stringō (“to bind fast, tighten”).^[4][2][1] Nocentini explains Tuscan strinto, Sardinian istrintu and Romanian strâmt from Vulgar Latin *strinctus, with the /n/ of the present and perfect;^[2][5][6] DEI adds the northern and Ladin forms.^[2][5][6] The same word is French étroit, Occitan estret, Catalan estret, Spanish estrecho and Portuguese estreito.^[2][6]

The noun “strait” is the adjective used as a noun.^[2][7][8]

De Vaan explains Latin stringō as the merger of the roots Proto-Indo-European *strig- (“to brush, strip”) and *strengʰ- (“to draw, tie”).^[9] The participle has the form of the first and the meaning of the second.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Italian translation of Guido delle Colonne, before 1290, for someone bound to others by friendship or kinship;^[4] Bono Giamboni, before 1292, uses it for “very near” and “narrow”.^[4] Nocentini dates the word to the early 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the word for “pressed, held tight”, and around 1300 it also meant “strict, severe”.^[4] Giovanni Villani, before 1348, used it as a noun for the strait of Gibraltar (lo stretto di Sibilia), but the noun became common only in the 16th century.^[4][10][5] In 1584 Salviati applied it to close vowels.^[4]

The music sense, the final part of a fugue with the entries close together, is recorded in 1757–1781, and passed into French in 1703 and into English in 1740 and 1854.^[4][11] More recent are dialetto stretto “broad dialect” (1916) and lo stretto necessario “the bare necessities” (1922).^[4][7]

Timeline

• Before 1290 – Guido delle Colonne's translation uses the word for “closely bound”.^[4]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for “narrow”.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “held tight”.^[4]
• Before 1348 – Villani uses the noun for a strait.^[4]
• 1584 – Salviati uses it for close vowels.^[4]
• 1699 – Stretta di mano “handshake” is recorded.^[4]
• 1703 – French borrows the music term.^[11]
• 1757–1781 – The music sense is recorded in Italian.^[4]
• 1922 – Lo stretto necessario is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. narrow: Il vicolo era così stretto che l'auto non passava.^[12][7][8]
2. tight, too small or close-fitting: Dopo le feste la gonna le stava stretta.^[12][7]
3. Held or pressed firmly: Teneva stretta la mano della madre.^[12][8][13]
4. Very close to others: In metropolitana eravamo tutti stretti.^[12][8][13]
5. Close, intimate: parenti stretti, un mio stretto collaboratore.^[12][8][13]
6. strict, rigorous: lutto stretto.^[7][8]
7. Of a dialect, pure, broad: Parla un napoletano stretto.^[7][13]
8. Placed before the noun, no more than: lo stretto necessario.^[7][8]
9. (phonetics) Of a vowel, close.^[8][1]

Noun

1. (geography) A strait: lo stretto di Messina.^[7][8][14]
2. (music) The stretto of a fugue.^[7][8][14]
3. (uncommon) A narrow passage.^[7][14]

Word family

• stretta
• strettezza
• strettoia
• strettamente
• strettoio
• strettura

Related words

• stringere
• Latin strictus

Usage notes

A denti stretti means “grudgingly, with great effort”, and di manica stretta “strict, mean”.^[13][7][14] Caffè stretto is a strong, short coffee.^[1] DEI also records a noun stretto for the wine pressed from the residue of the grapes (1625).^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 341
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3654
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 348
11. ^ a b 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 e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli