pilota Italian · revision 39186

+ {{infobox|confidence=disputed|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1375, Boccaccio|origins=grc πηδόν}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /piˈlɔ.ta/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''pilota''' ''m or f'' by sense (masculine plural piloti, feminine plural pilote)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old forms are ''pedoto'' (Boccaccio), ''pedotta'' (Francesco da Barberino, 1314), ''pedotto'' (Giovanni Villani) and ''piloto'', still used in literature.^(DEI|2923)^(DELI 1999)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Its origin is uncertain.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003) The prevailing view, held by Corominas and Castellani and followed by Nocentini, Battisti and Alessio and Devoto–Oli, is that it is [[bor|gkm|*pēdṓtēs|t=helmsman]], from [[grc|πηδόν|tr=pēdón|t=oar blade, rudder]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|2923)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(REW 1935)^(Wiktionary) The word appears first as [[la-med|pedota]] in Crete in 1271 and in Venice in 1311, and [[roa-oit|pedoto]] and [[roa-oit|pedotta]] took their vowel from [[m|it|piede|t=foot]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) The forms with ⟨i⟩ show the Byzantine pronunciation of /ē/ as /i/;^(Nocentini 2010)^(Wiktionary)^(Prati 1951|778) Nocentini explains the /l/ as a replacement of intervocalic /d/, while Wiktionary and Prati think of the influence of [[m|it|pileggiare|t=to sail]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(Wiktionary)^(Prati 1951|778) [[la-med|pillotus]] is recorded at Genoa in the 13th century.^(DEI|2923)^(GDLI|13, 482)

+

+ Manlio Cortelazzo objected that the early pilot was the guide who took ships in and out of harbour rather than the helmsman, and proposed an unattested [[grc|*pylṓtēs]] from [[grc|πύλη|tr=pýlē|t=gate]], the harbour entrance;^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti follow him.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) Castellani answered that the Greek word means “gate”, not “harbour”, and does not explain the Venetian form [[m|vec|pedota]].^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ From Italian the word passed to [[fr|pilote]], first recorded in 1339, to [[es|piloto]], [[ca|pilot]] and [[el|πιλότος|tr=pilótos]], and through French to [[en|pilot]], recorded from the 1510s.^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|2923)^(DIFIT)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Boccaccio, who died in 1375, has ''piloto'' and ''pedoto'' for the man who steers a ship during the voyage;^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(DEI|2923) GRADIT dates the word to the ''Decameron'', 1348–53.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(DEI|2923) The form ''pilota'' is first found in Ariosto in 1532.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Prati insists that the ''pilota'' was properly the man who guides ships into and out of harbours, rivers and difficult passages, not the helmsman, and that the pilot of an aircraft owes his name to the looser sense.^(Prati 1951|778)^(DELI 1999) In the 17th century Lorenzo Lippi used ''piloto'' for a dull man who stands idle.^(DEI|2923)

+

+ With the motor age the word was transferred to the driver of a train through a dangerous stretch (1922), to the pilot of an aircraft (1914, in the ''Corriere della sera'') and to the driver of a racing car (1942).^(DELI 1999)^(DIFIT) In the 1930s and 1940s it began to be used after nouns as an invariable adjective for something that serves as a guide or a trial model: ''impianto pilota'' (1938) and ''partito pilota'' (1948, Giuseppe Dossetti), a calque of English uses such as “pilot engine”.^(DELI 1999)^(DEI|2923)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1271 – Medieval Latin ''pedota'' is recorded in Crete.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1314 – Francesco da Barberino has ''pedotta''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1339 – French ''pilot'' is first recorded.^(DIFIT)

+ * 1348–1353 – Boccaccio's ''Decameron'' has the word.^(GRADIT 2003)

+ * 1532 – Ariosto uses ''pilota''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1510s – English ''pilot'' is recorded, through French.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1813 – ''Pilotare'' is recorded of ships.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1914 – ''Pilota'' is used of the pilot of an aircraft.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1938 – ''Impianto pilota'', a pilot plant, is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1942 – ''Pilota'' is used of a car driver.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|pilot]], someone qualified to fly an aircraft, a helicopter or a spacecraft: ''Il pilota ha annunciato l'atterraggio.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # A racing [[m|en|driver]] of cars, motorcycles or motorboats; in a bobsleigh, the member of the crew who steers.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(nautical)'' A harbour pilot, authorised to board ships and steer them in and out of harbours and channels; formerly, the officer who directed a ship's navigation.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(railways)'' A shunter who helps the engine driver in movements within a station.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # ''(invariable, after a noun)'' Serving as a guide: ''nave pilota''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(invariable, after a noun)'' Experimental, serving as a model: ''un progetto pilota''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[pilotaggio]]

+ * [[pilotare]]

+ * [[pilotina]]

+ * [[copilota]]

+ * [[pilotino]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[fr|pilote]]

+ * [[en|pilot]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The noun is masculine or feminine according to the person (''il pilota'', ''la pilota''; plural ''piloti'', ''pilote'').^(Wiktionary)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) ''Pilota automatico'' is “autopilot”, and ''pesce pilota'' the pilot fish.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}