vantaggio

Forms

vantaggio m (plural vantaggi)^[1] Old Italian also had the fuller form Old Italian avvantaggio, spelled avantaggio, avantagio, avantaio and avantazio in different regions.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French avantage (“advantage”), as the older form Old Italian avvantaggio shows; the Italian word lost its first syllable.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} According to the LEI, quoted by DELI, the points of contact go back to the poetry of the Sicilian and Tuscan poets of the 13th century.^[3] GRADIT dates the French word to 1160.^[5] Wiktionary explains the loss of the initial vowel as a rebracketing of the article and noun.^[1]

The French noun is formed from avant (“before, in front”) and first meant “what is placed in front”;^[4][7] DEI notes that this sense survived for the projecting front part of a ship.^[4][7] The adverb continues Late Latin abante (“in front”), made of ab (“from”) and ante (“before”), which is also the source of Italian avanti.^[8][9][10] The same French noun was borrowed as Spanish ventaja and Portuguese ventagem, and Occitan has Old Occitan avantatge.^[9][10] Medieval Latin avantagium is recorded at the papal court in 1364.^[7] Devoto adds that the Italian form was influenced by vantare “to boast”.^[11]

A clipping of the word is aggio, the premium charged by money-changers, which French and other languages borrowed as French agio.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is vantagio among the poets of the Sicilian School, in the sense of something that puts a person or thing in a better position than others;^[3] vantaggio follows around 1300 in the Ammaestramenti degli antichi of Bartolomeo da San Concordio.^[3] The TLIO records the fuller avvantaggio in a Pistoia document of 1259.^[2] An anonymous poem calls it madness to serve someone from whom one gains only a “poor advantage” (povero vantagio).^[12]

Semantic evolution

By the turn of the 14th century the word also meant profit or gain, as in the Fiore.^[3] Dante uses it for the lead gained over an opponent: the naked wrestlers in Inferno 16 watch for “their hold and their advantage”.^[3][12] The Old Italian avvantaggio also covered a privilege, an improvement and a surplus over a measure.^[2] The Tuscan sense “something extra thrown in on the weight” survives regionally.^[13]

Derivatives appeared early: Guittone d'Arezzo has the diminutive vantaggetto, and Dante the verb avvantaggiare.^[14][4] The adjective vantaggioso is used of a person who seeks his own advantage by Benedetto Varchi (before 1565) and in the sense “profitable” from 1640.^[3] The opposite svantaggio is from the 17th century.^[4] In printing vantaggio became the name of the tray on which composed lines of type are set (1805).^[3] Sports gave it the senses of a lead in time, distance or points, and in tennis the point won after deuce.^[5][15]

Timeline

• 13th century – The Sicilian School poets use vantagio.^[3]
• 1259 – Avvantaggio is recorded in a Pistoia document.^[2]
• c. 1300 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses vantaggio.^[3]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the word for a lead gained over an opponent.^[3]
• 1364 – Medieval Latin avantagium is recorded at the papal court.^[7]
• Before 1565 – Benedetto Varchi uses vantaggioso.^[3]
• 1805 – The printing sense, a tray for composed type, is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An advantage: something that puts a person or thing in a better position than others: Parlare tre lingue è un bel vantaggio in questo lavoro.^[5][8][6]
2. Profit, benefit, gain: Da quell'accordo non ha tratto alcun vantaggio.^[5][8][13]
3. Improvement, relief, for example from a treatment.^[5][8]
4. A lead in time or distance over someone travelling the same route, especially in a race; in games, a lead in points: La squadra di casa è in vantaggio di due gol.^[5][6][15]
5. (sport) A handicap allowance given to weaker competitors at the start.^[5][15]
6. (tennis) The point won after deuce (vantaggio alla battuta, vantaggio alla rimessa).^[5][15]
7. (printing) A galley, the tray with raised edges on which lines of type are placed as they are composed.^[5][6]

Word family

• vantaggioso
• svantaggio
• svantaggioso
• svantaggiato
• avvantaggiare
• vantaggiare
• vantaggiosamente

Related words

• vanto
• aggio
• avanti
• French avantage

Usage notes

A vantaggio di means “in favour of, for the benefit of”, and in grammar the complemento di vantaggio is the phrase naming the person or thing an action benefits.^[8][13] In football the regola del vantaggio lets the referee play on after a foul when the fouled side keeps the ball.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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
4. ^ a b c d e 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 d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3987
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 662
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1037
15. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana