Etymologically
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trattare

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Pronunciation

  • /tratˈta.re/[1]

Forms

trattare (first-person singular present tràtto, first-person singular past historic trattài, past participle trattàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old forms include tractare and tratare.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tractāre (“to drag; to handle; to manage; to discuss”), the frequentative or intensive of trahō (“to drag, pull”), formed on its past participle tractus.[3][4][5][1] Many Italian senses were already Latin: handling and touching, managing, negotiating, behaving towards someone and discussing a subject.[3][4] The same verb is French traiter, Occitan traitar, Portuguese tratar and Romanian trata, and Spanish has the inherited trechar (“to prepare (fish)”) beside learned tratar.[4][6][7]

The origin of trahō is unclear: de Vaan finds its closest relatives in Celtic words for ebbing and pulling away, and thinks it may be a loanword shared by Italic and Celtic; a link with Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to drag”) is formally difficult.[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Brunetto Latini (before 1292), in the sense of discussing or setting out a subject in speech or writing.[3][5] The physical sense “to handle, touch” appears in Pier della Vigna and Dante: Matelda ridea… trattando più color con le sue mani (laughed, handling many colours with her hands).[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Villani (before 1348) uses it for conducting and concluding business, and Dante for discoursing on a topic.[3][10] The sense of treating a person in a certain way is dated by DELI to Guicciardini (before 1540), and Boccaccio already wrote of treating someone well or badly.[3][6] The technical sense of processing a substance or material, and the medical sense of treating a disease, are modern.[3][11]

Its derivatives divided the senses: trattato (1293–94, Dante) a treatise and a treaty, trattamento (1348–53) the way one is treated and later a wage or medical treatment, and trattativa (1799) negotiation, a 19th-century word that purists disliked.[3] German borrowed the Latin verb as German traktieren in the 15th century.[6]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Brunetto Latini uses trattare “to discuss”.[3][5]
  • 1293–1294 – Dante's Vita nova has trattato “treatise”.[3]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “to discourse”.[3]
  • Before 1348 – Villani uses it for “to conclude (an affair)”.[3]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio has trattamento “way of receiving someone”.[3]
  • Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses it for “to treat (someone)”.[3]
  • 1799 – Trattativa “negotiation” is recorded.[3]
  • 1939–1940 – Palazzi records “to process (a substance)”.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To deal with, discuss or set out a subject in speech or writing; intransitive trattare di, to be about: Il libro tratta della vita nei monasteri medievali.[5][12][13][1]
  2. To negotiate, to bargain over: trattare l'acquisto di un terreno, il prezzo è trattabile, si può trattare.[5][12][1]
  3. To treat someone in a certain way: Mi ha sempre trattato come uno di famiglia.[5][12][13][1]
  4. Of a shop, hotel or restaurant, to serve its customers in a certain way.[5][12][14]
  5. To have dealings with someone, especially in business; to deal in a product.[5][12][11][1]
  6. To handle or use something with care or without it.[5][13]
  7. To process a material or substance: trattare il legno contro i tarli.[14][11][15][1]
  8. (medicine) To treat a disease or patient.[13][11][1]

Word family

  • trattato
  • trattamento
  • trattativa
  • trattabile
  • intrattabile
  • trattazione
  • trattatista
  • maltrattare
  • trattarsi

Usage notes

Common phrases are trattare con i guanti (to handle with kid gloves), trattare a pesci in faccia (to treat with contempt) and trattare dall'alto in basso (to look down on).[5][12] The impersonal trattarsi di means “to be a matter of”.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3872
  7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  11. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli